Winning Hearts and Minds – Transforming the Industrial Heartlands

Two new policy papers offer valuable insights into (former) industrial regions in the United States. Together with experts, we discussed actionable recommendations for change-makers in German and US industrial heartlands. Here’s what we learned.

What’s next for the green transformation of the economy? Central to this debate are the industrial heartlands of the United States and Germany. This is why a few weeks before the U.S. presidential election of 2024, project fellows of the Transatlantic Dialogue on the Industrial Heartlands travelled through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. They gained first-hand insights into the political climate by engaging with local organisations and individuals shaping the future of these regions. 

These dialogues underlined once more: the challenge is not purely economic, it is equally a question of communication, emotions and feelings. Transatlantic learning is key at this moment in time, as Germany stands today where the US was four years ago: at the starting line of a massive infrastructure investment package. Lessons from the so-called Bidenomics underline that fears of decline, the loss of pride and questions of identity have to be addressed for financial investments in the heartlands to pay off politically. 

To address this nexus of economic and democratic renewal, young U.S. and German change-makers have developed two policy papers. They offer concrete proposals to steer investment in people and place, improve local governance and foster innovation. We explored these ideas in an online discussion with politicians, transition experts, and invited guests.

Putting people in the centre of it

The overarching questions: How can the transition to a green economy and society succeed? What lessons can be drawn from the industrial heartlands? And how do we bring everyone on board in times like these? 

While the papers offer clear policy recommendations, the debate around them showed: There is a non-formal dimension that needs to be added. It starts with the way we talk and think about the transformation and extends to deep-rooted cultural narratives that must be acknowledged. As one participant put it: Inject emotions!

Project fellow Whitney Terrill presented the paper People-Centered Industrial Transformation, reflecting insights gathered from five U.S. cities. She noted that the term “just transition” is sometimes viewed as controversial and made clear: it simply means ensuring that everyone – especially working-class communities – has access to the green transformation. One key enabler are trade unions. They help build collective power, connect people, and provide much-needed continuity and stability.

The role of cities in driving the green transformation

Bill Peduto, former mayor of Pittsburgh and member of the project sounding board, shared his insights from the ground in Pennsylvania. He emphasised the crucial role of cities in delivering what will be the greatest industrial revolution in human history. With deep uncertainty about the direction the U.S. will take under Trump, subnational dialogue is more important than ever.

For cities to fully seize the opportunities of the green transformation, they must tailor their strategies to local realities. Collaborating with universities, they can assess which capacities need strengthening and identify where industrial conversion is most viable. The transition is likely to be most successful in regions with a strong industrial past – the industrial heartlands.

On communication, Peduto highlighted a major challenge: green technology is often met with fear. To overcome this, we need to frame the green transition as an opportunity—one that safeguards towns, secures jobs, and ensures a better future for the next generations. Yes, it reduces carbon emissions, but more importantly, it makes communities more resilient and part of a global movement. His advice to change-makers? Engage directly with those who have turned to the far right. Show them how this transition benefits them and their families. Win over hearts and minds.

Unlocking democracy by breaking through structural barriers

At the heart of the industrial heartlands’ transformation lies the power of local leadership. Project fellow Ben Harrington presented the second paper, Unlocking Democracy, which outlines targeted policy recommendations to dismantle structural barriers, enabling communities to take charge of their own future.

He stressed that for regional collaboration to thrive and for economic and social renewal to take root, self-governing communities must be equipped with both legal authority and stable funding. At the same time, to dispel perceptions of government as “the scary G,” the social contract must be reimagined. Investing in place-based infrastructure should send a clear message: economic development and quality of life improvements can go hand in hand.

Calibrated change that improves people’s lives

Thomas Kralinski shared insights from Germany’s industrial heartlands, drawing from his experience as State Secretary at the Saxon State Ministry of Economics, Labour, and Transport. In Eastern Germany, communities have already undergone a profound transformation – the end of the German Democratic Republic. While this experience has brought valuable knowledge, it has also fostered deep insecurity, as people can only endure so many radical changes.

Reflecting on recent election results, it may seem paradoxical that large segments of voters in this region are turning to the far right, despite significant government investment in retraining and social programmes. Kralinski emphasised that to truly win over hearts and minds, financial support alone is not enough. The key question must be: How can we genuinely improve people’s lives?

While material factors matter, culture must be taken far more seriously in shaping policies. Change, when it comes, must be well-calibrated. As project fellow Vera Gohla put it: You can’t just make a plumber code. Skilled trades remain essential, and many people take pride in their craftsmanship. The green and digital transitions require not only new tech talent but also pathways that respect existing skills and mindsets, ensuring that workers find opportunities in industries that align with their experience and aspirations.

Addressing emotional loss in times of change

Kenneth Thompson, a psychiatrist from Pittsburgh who met with the project fellows during their tour, shared valuable insights on how to win over people in times of transformation. He highlighted the tendency to speak of “hearts” without truly addressing the emotional needs that lie beneath. While the golden age of industrial regions may be over, you cannot just tell people: we’re gonna show you the new way, the better way. 

People need space to mourn. The predominant sense of loss has been neglected by the left. And the easiest way not to feel loss is to feel rage. This is what we are seeing in both Germany and the U.S. However, the good news, according to Thompson, is that collective emotional loss can be addressed using cultural tools – and there are already successful examples of how this can be done.

It’s politics, not just policy

When you travel along the A1 motorway in the North East of England, you will encounter a large contemporary sculpture by artist Antony Gormley: The Angel of the North. Completed in 1998, this figure stands 20 metres tall with a wingspan of 54 metres. It is made from weathering steel and ​​was commissioned by the local council to mark the transition of the area from an industrial past, shaped by coal mining, to a modern future. 

The Angel of the North could easily be seen as a mere landmark. But it serves a deeper purpose, Thompson remarked – memorialising the loss of an entire industry. The message is as simple as it is profound: This is who we were. And now, we will become something different.

Back in the online event, there is a sense that the presented policy recommendations are valuable, as they were born from genuine interest in the region and its people the discussions underline that it is not just about policies, but about the politics that constitute the framework in which they are implemented.. Yet, despite the drive to move forward, we must remember the importance of looking back. We must create space to recognise and mourn the losses, honouring the past before shaping a brighter future together.

Communicating this dual message – respecting the past while striving for better times ahead – is crucial. By doing so, we can improve lives, strengthen regions, and instill pride in families. In the end, the reduced carbon footprint will almost seem like a welcome by-product of the transformation – and we will gladly take that.

In light of the recent geo-economic shifts accelerated by the pandemic, global crises and conflicts, and the ongoing efforts to tackle the climate crisis, one group is facing particular challenges: The middle class in the former industrial heartlands across the US and Europe.

A week ago, Donald Trump moved into the White House for the second time, and the radical shift in US politics has already become abundantly clear. What factors drove voters in the industrial heartlands to lean Republican?

What do people in the industrial heartlands of the US Midwest actually think about politics? And what are the actual needs and concerns of these communities?

Author: Kenneth S. Thompson MD, Pittsburgh

Several years ago I got a call from a friend. She was working in a town outside of Pittsburgh, where she was hoping to spark a renewal of its main street. Knowing I was a psychiatrist she called with a specific question: “I know you treat people with depression, but what do you do when the whole town is depressed?” I have been thinking about this ever since. Just a couple of days ago I got another call about another town outside Pittsburgh in the opposite direction. He asked me the same question and added an observation: “The only thing young people want to do here is leave.”

Election Day 2024 is just ahead and it appears much will depend on the actions of Pennsylvanians – especially those residing in our rural and de-industrialized regions. Arlie Hochschild, an acclaimed sociologist, has just published a book about a similar place located in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. The book, titled “Stolen Pride”, follows up on her previous book “Strangers in Their Own Land”. Together they constitute an ongoing effort to understand the deep links between historical developments and the collective emotions underlying political life.

 What’s left is unspoken shame and articulated anger

“Strangers in Their Own Land” examines how people living among the chemical plants of Louisiana felt about and dealt with the ongoing degradation and pollution of the land around them. “Stolen Pride” examines how people in eastern Kentucky are dealing with the collapse of the coal industry and their sense that they and their community have become invisible. It is explicitly focused on the factors driving people from being Democrats to increasingly right-wing Republicanism.

Given the historical, social, and geographic similarities across Appalachia, it is not too great a stretch to consider what Professor Hochschild learned in the context of Pennsylvania. Below see a comparison of key facts about Kentucky Congressional District 5, the focus of “Stolen Pride”, and Pennsylvania Congressional District 14, which includes Fayette, Indiana, Greene and Washington County.

Figure 1: Kentucky Congressional District 5

Distribution	– 76.49% rural[1] – 23.51% urban
Population (2023)	738,681[2]
Median household income	$44,175[3]
Ethnicity	– 93.7% White – 2.6% Two or more races – 1.5% Hispanic – 1.4% Black – 0.4% Asian – 0.3% other

Figure 2: Pennsylvania Congressional District 14

Distribution	99.78% rural ??? 0.22% urban ???
Population (2023)	753,602[1]
Median household income	$63,720
Ethnicity	– 90.4% White – 3.7% Two or more races – 3.3% Black – 1.6% Hispanic – 0.6% Asian – 0.4% other

In addition to the shared population statistics and mountainous terrain is the collective experience of a history of economic decline and subsequent societal dislocation. Communities have deteriorated, taking valued social roles, status, and pride with them in both Kentucky and Pennsylvania, as well as other parts of Appalachia and the “Rust Belt”. What’s left in these left behind places is often unspoken shame and articulated anger that expresses a sense of being mistreated and displaced with a desire for revenge and restoration-taking back what is felt to have been stolen. It is an economy of emotions exchanged between people in reaction to perceptions, not necessarily to facts. It might be called “emotional reality”.

Addressing the reality of painful emotions

It’s on this terrain that I became engaged with Professor Hochschild’s work. I am a psychiatrist who works in de-industrialized, left-behind communities in Pittsburgh and at the policy level in the Commonwealth and the nation. I have been particularly concerned with the epidemic of the „deaths of despair” (drug and alcohol related deaths and suicide) that have devastated the places I have worked and many others like them.

Addressing the reality of painful emotions is difficult. It’s far easier to run from them and to not discuss them – which helps explain the use of substances and alcohol. This is particularly true when shame is involved. It is much easier to display anger than it is to admit fear, loss and shame. No wonder these latter feelings are generally absent from the national conversation, going unacknowledged while they drive the nation’s emotional reality, a powerful current under our raging sea.

Where are the multitude of sacrifices memorialized?

Pennsylvanians have experienced their share of profound losses. Entire industries and the communities they created have become shadows of themselves. People could blame the powerful global forces that have been driving our economy. But our culture of individual responsibility doesn’t see it that way. So these losses are experienced as failures that are both personal and collective. Failure is experienced as deeply shameful. Because of difficulty talking about these feelings, our communities have not worked through mourning our myriad losses – we hardly acknowledge them.

Where are the monuments to those bygone days – other than the now useless rusting ruins? Where are the multitude of sacrifices memorialized? Who remembers that the Mon Valley made the steel that won World War II? Who cares how heroic coal miners were? Who are we? We don’t know and no one else does either. No wonder regional pride is at an ebb. No wonder young people just want to leave.

Somehow, the abuse has to stop

It’s not helpful that those in our society who are doing well are often scornful of the failures and the related emotional reactions. These attitudes both reinforce the shame and, in their lack of empathy, drive further disconnection. They further decrease the likelihood that painful feelings will be discussed and reinforce the idea that we can express anger instead. This locks us in a pattern of arrogant big city elites and ignorant residents of „Pennsyltucky” – unable to grasp each other, looking to our respective leaders to somehow to put the other in their place – „A basket of deplorables” and “Marxist Fascist Communists”. 

This election, built on the fulcrum of these emotions, is revealing what has all the earmarks of a mutually abusive toxic relationship. Each side is hoping to overwhelm the other. What if we don’t? What if we do? What will get us off this high stakes emotional roller coaster? We must find a way. The truth is that we are dependent on each other – we are each other. It’s a fantasy to imagine otherwise. Somehow the abuse has to stop. Somehow we all have to find a way to think again and not allow ourselves to repeat our usual pattern of emotional reactions.

Not giving up on reinvigorating the future, but giving the past its due

I am worried that, in their mutual desire to escape an intolerable sense of shame about the losses they have experienced, large numbers of people will identify with and vote for a candidate who articulates that rage – and nothing else. I understand the desire and the importance of sending a message of anger, but the desire for revenge has left many people extremely vulnerable to the siren call of a manifestly treasonous charlatan and bully who is invested in continuing the abusive relationship for his own gain. It is impossible to imagine that his call, if answered, won’t lead to much regret and even greater shame. Very strong emotions can lead to very poor choices that make things worse, not better.  

At the same time, I hope that Vice President Harris and Governor Walz continue to build on President Biden’s extensive efforts to engage left behind Americans in a new future. I hope they can address the losses, the shame and the anger that have long been neglected and initiate a process of societal mourning – remembering rural and industrial America and the people who made it. This is not to suggest that they give up on reinvigorating the future, but that they give the past its due. It and the people in it deserve to be recognized. They are never going away. We must reconcile with them. That’s what mourning is about-the future is built out of the past.  

As they mourn, the people in these areas need to be reassured that the societal collapse they experienced wasn’t their fault and that it was a terrible mistake to undervalue and ignore them – to shame them. They need to be shown that this time things will be different, that the success of the nation must and will include them as it does everyone else. It must be made clear that, without them, we are not wholly who we are, and we cannot become who we aspire to be. I hope the Democrats continue to throw themselves into this.

The people of America on both sides of this election have many positive attributes that, if

elicited, can overshadow the depression, shame, anger and arrogance described here. I hope this election becomes a path toward healing – one that moves beyond feelings of anger, revenge and arrogance in favor of the better angels of our nature: empathy, reason, compassion, love and hope, in a country where no one feels they have no future in their community.

Time is short. We have a lot of emotional work to do.

About Kenneth S. Thompson

Wahlkampf zwischen grünem Wandel und fossilen Rückschritten – Einblicke aus den Industrial Heartlands

Deutschlands Progressive könnten sich von Harris abgucken, wie man den Populisten Paroli bietet. Es braucht ein mehrheitsfähiges Politikangebot.

Progressive Industrial Policy: An Antidote for Troubled Times

Author: Miguel Costa Matos

These are hard times. People are struggling with the cost of living and, disillusioned with things as they are, they are turning in increasing numbers to the far right. Progressives need to go beyond redistribution. We need a ‘thick industrial policy’, with strategy, cooperation and conditionality to deliver a future-proof economy, resources to sustain the welfare state and green investment and, crucially, opportunity for our generation.

‘It’s the economy, stupid!’ James Carville’s timeless words were key to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential victory, after focusing his campaign on the deepening recession. This was probably the first of a new generation of progressive victories, ranging from Tony Blair in the UK to Wim Kok in the Netherlands and Gerhard Schröder in Germany. Their ‘Third Way’ project brought a different perspective on economic policy, arguing Social Democrats should accept the mechanics of the market and its political hegemony after the fall of the Berlin Wall. At most, we could be capitalists with a conscience, using social policy to redistribute the dividends of growth. But, often, it was our political family who implemented privatisations, labour market and financial market deregulation, as well as strict welfare reforms.

The success of this political movement was short-lived and had its shortcomings. Not only were governments underwhelming in their transformative impact, but crucially, they stopped winning. This happened for three key reasons. Our mission as Socialists is to improve the lot of working people. But, all too often, we took them for granted, leaving low-income voters to either stop voting, or turn to other political outfits. Thomas Picketty has described this poignantly with his concept of a ‘Brahmin Left’. Democracy was not, as Anthony Downs had suggested, an economic function where voter share was maximised as a ‘catch-all party’ teasing centre and centre-right voters. Between the original and the copy, voters preferred the real deal and voted for the right anyway. Last but not least, the 2008 economic crisis came along, putting into question the intellectual and moral authority of the market and its steadfast advocates, both on the left and the right. In W. B. Yeats’ famous image, ‘things fall apart, the centre cannot hold’. With no succeeding policy consensus, the economic crisis has been outlasted by a crisis of political ideas. As Antonio Gramsci noted, a ‘crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.’ Among these morbid symptoms are the rise of the far-right across much of the Western world and the deepening of neoliberal governance with the socialisation of risk and privatisation of reward.

Presently, we are called upon to be midwives of Gramsci’s ‘new’. Beyond the political importance of winning the battle for ideas and pushing back the radicalisation of the right, we face pressing challenges in climate change, migration, ageing and the digital transition that require investment, on the one hand, and a rewiring of the economy, on the other. Redistribution and palliative measures are not enough. Rather, we need to usher in a new economy that is future-proof, sustainable and delivers for working people. A stronger economy is, of course, capable of achieving more resources for welfare and investment. More importantly, it can sustain better jobs that give our generation not only the freedom to move but the freedom to stay, as proposed by Enrico Letta, who is drafting the High-Level Report on the Future of the Single Market. 

‘What is to be done?’ we often hear, as if decades of ‘laissez-faire socialism’ made us forget how to intervene in the economy. Thankfully, there is hardly a need to reinvent the wheel. The policy instruments are much like those used in the present neoliberal paradigm. We, too, will use tax and financial incentives. We, too, will lower the cost of doing business through reform. Our policies will, however, come with a twist; rather than lowering taxes and wages across the board, we can direct incentives to firms that invest in R&D, decent wages and disadvantaged territories. Rather than reducing dismissal costs by embracing labour market flexibility, we can lower training costs and invest in skills. In short, we can deploy conditionality to ensure that there is socialisation not only of risk but also of rewards. 

Portugal has managed to multiply its annual economic growth tenfold, from an average of 0.2 per cent from 2000 to 2015, when the Socialists came to power, to an average of 2.1 per cent since. The country has outpaced other survivors of Eurocratic austerity not only by restoring confidence in the economy, but by resorting to this toolkit. In 2022, the government signed a pact with trade unions and employers’ confederations to increase wages by 20 per cent over the next four years. Chief among its policies was a 50 per cent tax credit on the costs of wage hikes above 5 per cent. This, however, did not come for free. Of course, the state won by subsiding permanent wage increases for a single year, but, crucially, this incentive only paid out if firms reduced wage disparity and had signed a collective bargaining agreement in the last three years. This agreement has led both to the highest rate of wage growth since the start of the millennium and a boom in collective bargaining.

This, of course, cannot be done without strategy. We are not indifferent to the kinds of industries we are supporting. By upgrading incumbent sectors and developing a comparative advantage in new products, we need to look to where we can compete through high value rather than low cost. This can be achieved both vertically, integrating industries upstream and downstream, and horizontally, in related industries. For instance, Portugal has today expanded from being a ‘simple’ car manufacturer to producing components for most car plants across Europe, hosting the R&D for many of these parts, developing the software that goes into our cars and, even, attracting related industries, such as the flourishing aviation sector.

This does not come without risks, chief among them is the danger we might pick losers rather than winners. The very process of picking is vulnerable to private interests, or at least the perception these might be at play. This can only be counteracted by a ‘thick industrial policy’. Thickness is needed at both ends. Projects ought to involve cooperation between firms within an economic cluster and also with the innovation ecosystem. Governments, too, need to mobilise experts to help choose which projects to support. By broadening the pool of people with stakes in the enterprise, we not only call upon a broader pool of resources to help the project succeed. We also filter out those that are not viable.

Over 30 years on, ‘it’s (still) the economy, stupid’. The economic troubles brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have mobilised an unprecedented level of corporate welfare. Progressives need to think out a strategy and build up policies that can foster sustainable and shared prosperity. Ultimately, this is about much more than growth. It is about offering the working class better living conditions and an alternative to democratic disillusion and far-right protest. It is about reclaiming a future for Social Democracy and our planet.

Miguel Costa Matos is a Member of Parliament in Portugal, the Vice-President of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group and deputy spokesperson for budget and finance affairs.

© 01.02.2024 | Originally Published in The Progressive Post