The plight of so-called “left behind” regions has been of intense interest in many countries around the world in recent years, not least due to the pivotal role these communities were said to have played in the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump.

For instance, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn examined the state of these towns in the United States in their excellent book Tightrope, which addresses the crisis in working-class America while.

It can be tempting to view such communities as a homogenous blob, often characterized as post-industrial wastelands whose primary industry has long since vanished with little emerging to take its place, thus leaving residents with little in the way of either hope or opportunity.

Left behind

It’s a narrative that’s questioned by recent research from the University of Cambridge, which finds that “left behind communities” in the UK are by no means homogenous and often display very unique characteristics that define how people think and behave.

For instance, the study found that former mining communities were much less likely to turn to populist or nationalist parties than their socio-economic peers elsewhere in the community.  Instead, they have simply succumbed to a degree of apathy and cynicism that belies their loss of faith in politics to do anything to help them.  This makes people in these communities less likely to vote than non-mining communities that have also fallen on hard times.

The researchers assessed data on the social and political attitudes of people from across Britain between 2009 and 20019, which is a period broadly defined as encompassing austerity after the financial crisis and then the Brexit referendum.

The analysis uncovered a number of communities where the coal industry was a major employer in the early 1980s.  These communities were then paired with communities elsewhere in the country that had similar personal characteristics, including rates of homeownership, education, and income, but with no history of coal mining.

Uninterested in politics

The results reveal that people in former coal mining communities feel generally disengaged from politics than their peers elsewhere.  This is reflected in lower voter turnout in the last election and minimal intention to vote in any upcoming elections either.

What’s more, these communities also display high levels of cynicism regarding democracy and believe that it’s not a process that really helps them.  This resulted in the mental wellbeing of people in these communities being significantly lower than similar towns elsewhere.

“Narratives of decline loom large in the current identity of old mining areas, even though the working lives of most residents started long after the pits closed,” the researchers explain.

“For people in communities that saw sudden and rapid economic decay, there appears to be an increased insularity and distrust of political systems compared to those who are also deprived, but do not have a shared local history of decline.”

Momentary interest

The general political apathy was reversed during the Brexit referendum, with former mining towns gravitating towards the Leave camp.  Even this boost to political engagement was mooted, however, as it still didn’t bring interest to the same levels seen in similar towns elsewhere.

Indeed, the Brexit referendum seemed to ignite political interest in many so-called “left behind” communities, but in former mining towns it rapidly fell away again after the referendum.  This general disenchantment with politics even extends to the populist and nationalist parties that emerged to target these disaffected groups.

“It seems that the modern Left may not have lost the people in former mining communities to populism or emerging nationalist parties, but rather apathy and cynicism,” the researchers explain.

Lack of cohesion

Sadly there also seemed to be minimal evidence that these communities were bound together by their plight, with little sense of community cohesion compared to similarly economically disadvantaged communities.

“It’s been over thirty years since large numbers of people went underground for work, plenty of time for strong social relationships to dwindle,” the researchers explain. “Loss of solidarity among these communities may have been compounded by austerity in recent years.”

“However, it is also possible that the other deprived communities to which we compared former mining areas – from housing estates to rundown seaside towns – actually have higher levels of social cohesion than might be expected.”