Glasgow and Rutherglen are historic places in the West of Scotland celebrating their 850th and 900th birthdays this decade.
At their industrial peak, they were major centres for steel, iron, coal, chemical, and textile production. The people of Glasgow and Rutherglen made armaments, bridges, railways, and ships for large firms. Industry created prosperity but it came, often, at a detriment to the health of workers and the land leading to health issues and land contamination that still impact people and place.
Alongside industrial production, merchant traders in Glasgow, once known as the ‘Second City of Empire’, imported slave-grown tobacco, cotton, and sugar profiting from British Empire and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The decline of industry, mine closures, slum clearance, and relocation policies in the twentieth century profoundly impacted Glasgow and Rutherglen. Industrial decline hit working-class communities hard, and despite contributing to the city’s wealth, for a long time, there were few new opportunities or investments from the sectors they had made prosperous.
Demographic Change
Around 1950, Glasgow had over a million inhabitants. But by 1980, after the decline and closure of industries, a third of its population had left or were relocated through post-war slum clearance and new town schemes.
Areas in Rutherglen and Glasgow are also experiencing population ageing, with higher numbers of people over 65 than ever before. The areas also face economic challenges, with some areas having high levels of multiple deprivation and decreasing opportunities for decent work.
Communities here are also still dealing with the toxic legacies of industry, including material and chemical waste and abandoned buildings that cause problems for people and the environment. Chemical waste in Glasgow and Rutherglen recently turned a local river radioactive green, and there are high levels of cancer within local populations.
Renewal
In the wake of all this change, Rutherglen and particularly the East End of Glasgow are undergoing large-scale regeneration projects that put business and technological innovation at the forefront of the agenda.
The question is, who will benefit from renewal? And what does the future look like here?
Some of this renewal concerns energy futures, with renewal even occurring underground. Scientists are investigating whether abandoned mines, now flooded with wastewater, can heat homes in Glasgow’s East End and neighbouring Rutherglen.
The communities here are a vital part of ongoing processes of renewal that seek to reinvent what life is like for people here in Glasgow’s East End and Rutherglen.
Waste/Land/Futures wants to find out from residents what their anxieties and hopes are for the future, for intergenerational relations and solidarity, and for better ageing.
Futures
Our project is interested in narratives about the future.
We are interested in the connections between waste, land, and people and want to know how people in the East End and Rutherglen might imagine and reimagine desirable futures.
We are intrigued by themes of population ageing, intergenerational relationships and solidarity, and human relationships with the local environment, things, time, waste, and renewal (including renewable energies and sustainability).
As renewal plans forge onwards in Rutherglen and the East End, our project seeks to create space for people of differing generations to voice their perspectives on the future of these places.
We want to know what desirable futures look like for people in Glasgow and Rutherglen and uncover what people see as barriers to realising those futures.
Contact the Scottish Research Team
Have you got ideas about the city’s future or stories about its past? Have you seen change happen over a series of generations? Or would you like to learn more about the project? We would love to hear from you. Use the form below to contact Rozemarijn de Kwaasteniet (University of Stirling).
