Category: Policy Paper

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Industrial Heartlands Policy Papers

In October 2024, just a few weeks before the U.S. presidential election, the project fellows traveled through the American industrial heartlands to get a first-hand impression of the prevailing political climate and to engage with numerous organizations and individuals who are deeply involved in shaping the future of these industrial heartlands.

The meetings in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities in these regions, allowing the project fellows to summarize their findings in policy papers that provide actionable recommendations for policymakers and change makers in both the United States and Germany.

Industrial heartlands must leverage their existing infrastructure, skilled workforces, and industrial heritage to drive innovation and create well-paying jobs, particularly in energy and green technologies. Public–private partnerships, regional innovation clusters, and trade union support will be essential, as seen in successful initiatives like the Youngstown Business Incubator, which fosters entrepreneurship, workforce development, and technological innovation. Civic engagement models, such as Erie’s Jefferson Educational Society, can help bridge partisan divides, while philanthropic capital and sovereign wealth funds can mitigate economic risks by reinvesting in key industries and community revitalization. By focusing on these strategies, industrial heartlands can become leaders in sustainable development, ensuring short-term economic benefits, long-term prosperity, and democratic resilience. By learning from U.S. experiences, Germany can compare and navigate its own industrial transformation while further promoting regional collaboration.

The industrial heartlands are places poised to lead the way into a more democratic, sustainable future. At the core of this transformation lies the power to unlock local leadership, foster regional collaboration, and provide the necessary tools for economic and social renewal. Through targeted policy recommendations, we aim to break through the structural barriers that have held back progress, unlocking the potential of every community to shape its future. By focusing on investment in people, place, and democratic processes, we can create vibrant, engaged communities that are resilient in the face of change and capable of guiding their own destinies.

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Industrial Heartlands Impulse Papers

After an intensive first working phase on the thematic strands of â€œClimate, Work and Innovation” and “Perspective for the Future, Respect and Participation”, our Project Fellows outlined the issues and topics they will work on throughout the course of the project. They were presented to the public at Innocracy Conference on November 17 where these impulse papers set the scene for a panel discussion amongst elected officials and leaders from the US Midwest as well as German transformation regions.

The future of industrial heartlands on both sides of the Atlantic stands at a crossroads. In both Germany and the United States, 2016 was characterised by the ascendance of right-wing politics, a trend exacerbated by the ascendance of right-wing politics bolstered by a perception of abandonment among the constituents of heartland communities.

In this working paper, through our own uniquely developed lenses, we reflect on the current challenges faced by post-in- dustrial heartland communities and regions, spanning three specific areas:

1. Work and Workforce
2. Democratic and Local Participation
3. The Political Future and Elections

For each area, we address what we believe to be the issues as they currently stand, discuss their importance to the future of the industrial heartlands, and work to develop our line of inquiry as a cohort.

Industrial heartlands on both sides of the Atlantic have been at the forefront of fundamental transformations throughout the past decades and show similar contemporary phenomenologies. Specific socioeconomic geographies, from the American Midwest to eastern Germany, are challenged by surging illiberal populist movements. They face severe demographic challenges and are battlegrounds for escalating culture wars and rural-urban divisions. At the same time, industrial heartlands are bell weathers for successfully shaping inbound structural change. They are home to populations with extensive transformation experience and could, therefore, contribute valuable lessons in the processes that shape the systemic changes underway. This is all the more reason to shine a new spotlight on industrial heartlands, and in the following, we provide impulses on how to do so from a climate, work, and innovation perspective.

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