This book adopts a new perspective on the transformation of social inequality by analysing how it is experienced by individuals in a region that has undergone deindustrialisation, and explores the continued importance of class identity as workers attempt to manage the declining public recognition of their skills.

Lars Meier is Professor for Sociology and Social Inequality at the Institute for Sociology, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany.

1. Introduction Part 1: Context: Spatial and Social Transformations 2. Field Methods and the Local Context 3. Transformations of Class Part 2: Senses of Place and Transformed Industrial Landscapes 4. "Quite a Shame": Confrontations Between Workers Nostalgia and Optimistic Official Representations 5. Class-related Senses of Place and Frightening Encounters with Haunted Workplaces 6. Nostalgia and Practices of Resistance in Public Spaces Part 3: Community Transformations and Social Encounters 7. Community Transformations I: The Nostalgic View of the Former Established 8. Community Transformations II: The Non-nostalgic View of a Former Outsider 9. Conclusion