Riyoko Shibe
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5994-5235
Research title: Energy, Industry and Society: Security and Justice in Grangemouth, Scotland, from the 1950s to the 2000s
Research summary
Research title
"Energy, Industry and Society: Security and Justice in Grangemouth, Scotland, from the 1950s to the 2020s"
Key words: petrochemicals, noxiousness, moral economy, deindustrialisation, oral history of labour, Polanyi, E.P. Thompson
Research summary
This project analyses work and society in the Scottish town of Grangemouth from the 1950s to 2020s through oral history of labour and archive study. Europe's first petrochemical plants were opened in Grangemouth by BP Chemicals in 1951. Rapid expansion of the capital- and land-intensive industry from 1950 to 1970 saw development of moral economy expectations of fair, just work. From 1970, Grangemouth experienced jobless growth: enhanced investment into capital-intensive infrastructure, coupled with reduction of the workforce. This phenomenon is identified as 'noxious deindustrialisation', which had roots in the noxious industrialisation of earlier growth years.
This project examines the structural and experiential dimensions of Grangemouth's post-Second World War noxious industrial transformation. It draws on 21 oral history interviews with current and former workers, residents and political representatives. It also utilises extensive archival research, drawing on local adminstrative documents from Falkirk Archives, Scottish Office records from the National Records of Scotland, national economic and planning files from The National Archives, trade union documents from the Modern Records Centre, and firm records from BP Archives.
Research interests
- Labour and working-class history
- Deindustrialisation
- Noxious deindustrialisation and environmental justice
- Trade unions, work and protest
- Just transition
- Oral history
Supervisors
Grants
Scottish Graduate School of Social Science ESRC-funded Doctoral Studentship (1+3)
Conferences
The Business History Conference. A Business History Of The Petrochemical Industry: BP Chemicals In Grangemouth, Scotland, Since 1950. Atlanta, Georgia, 13-15 March 2025.
Moral Economy at the Crossroads of History and Social Sciences: Finding Customs in Common? Petrochemicals, pollution, and the moral economy of noxious deindustrialisation: Grangemouth, Scotland, from 1957 to 1992. Centre for the Political Economy of Labour, University of Strathclyde, 23 November 2023.
Energy Ethics 2023: Financing the Future. Economic Security, Grangemouth, and the Petrochemicals Industry from c.1957 to c.2005. Centre for Energy Ethics, University of St Andrews, 6-8 June 2023.
Teaching
Economic & Social History 2B: Britain Since 1914 ESH2002
Economic & Social History 2A: Britain 1770-1914 ESH2001
British Capitalism and its Discontents ESH4092