Introduction

Having been an associate member of the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) from attending WEA courses when conducting research into the politicisation of Scottish national identity (Gilfillan, 2014), the WEA seemed an ideal public to partner with in light of Burawoy's (2005) call for sociologists to engage with the likes of church groups, the labour movement and the working class. When going to meet with the WEA education development manager for Fife (‘Maesie’) at her Lumphinnans office in March 2017, it seemed appropriate to park in Gagarin Way opposite the WEA office as this street name indicated the previous industrial era when this former ‘pit village’ had earned the local nickname ‘Little Moscow’ thanks to a Communist tradition strong enough to have streets named after heroes of the Soviet Union. However, in light of 1980s deindustrialisation and the flight of private capital from the central Fife corridor from Buckhaven and Methil in the east to Ballingry and Lochore in the west, Burawoy's question ‘are there any publics out there?’ (in Tamdgidi, 2008: 140) was a topic I wanted to explore with Maesie.