No Longer Dying for a Living: Collective Responses to Injury Risks in South Wales Mining Communities, 1900-47

Abstract

This article draws on documents and oral history tapes and transcripts stored in the South Wales Miners Library, particularly the 176 interviews with individuals or groups conducted as part of the South Wales Coalfield History Project (completed in 1974). The focus of the article is on collective health behaviour and particularly on formal and informal collective attempts to reduce safety threats in the pits. These data are related to contemporary theoretical and policy interests by consideration of the light they shed on the possible role of `social capital' in health promotion.