This paper will compare ten regions of heavy industry from North America to Australia and from Japan and China to Europe, in order to find out about the extent to which projects of industrial heritage are linked to regional identity constructions. In particular, the paper will seek to bring Reinhardt Koselleck’s concept of “layered temporalities” to an analysis of identity constructions in de-industralizing regions of heavy industry and ask to what extent the specificities of such “layered temporalities” tell us anything about the success or failure of such regional identity constructions. 

The paper will look at a variety of agents promoting and hindering the development of industrial heritage, from central, regional and local governments, to industrial managers, trade unionists and preservationists right through to urban social movements, artists, intellectuals and civil society groups. It will ask to what extent these different actors produce a variety of contested narratives about the industrial past that compete with each other for popularity and acceptance. It will also ask to what extent these narratives have influenced the development of industrial heritage initiatives. Key industrial heritage initiatives will be analyzed to see to what extent the have been able to re-shape regional narratives and give them lasting form and function. 

The paper will conclude by providing a comparative assessment of the successes and failures of industrial heritage initiatives in regions of heavy industry arguing that much depends on the constructions of successful narratives around issues to do with “layered temporalities.”