People-Centered Industrial Transformation: Lessons about Climate, Work, and Innovation from the American Heartlands

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.

Unlocking Democracy: Lessons from America’s Industrial Heartlands

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.

Industrial Heartlands: Holding The Key To A More Democratic Future”

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 In The Green Transformation

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.