The complex patterns of social and economic change in industrial South Wales have not, of course, affected all localities within the region uniformly. The collapse of employment in the staple industries, for example, has impacted most severely on those parts of the region where those industries were formerly concentrated. New job opportunities have tended to develop away from the centres of industrial decline; for example, recent manufacturing investment has tended to focus on the M4 corridor, away from the coalfield itself. Accordingly, each local area in South Wales has a history of social and economic development that is specific to its characteristic location within the broader patterns of regional change. Moreover, this characteristic local history has important implications for the nature of local learning opportunities and how these are understood by residents.

In what follows, therefore, we provide outline accounts of the local patterns of development in three areas within South Wales, where we conducted our primary data collection for our principal empirical study. At one level, therefore, these accounts provide insights into the places where our research was mainly concentrated. At another, however, they illustrate the significance of local context for people's participation in adult education and training and the extent to which differentiation between localities is a key element in understanding people's learning biographies.

Bridgend

Bridgend was originally a market and agricultural town. It grew to service the iron and coal industries to the north in the 19th century, becoming a focal point for transport networks (Boddy et al, 1990). Work began on an ordnance factory here in 1938, which grew to employ 34,000 people, mostly women, at its peak during the war of 1939-45. Much of this factory has now been converted to Bridgend Industrial Estate, where over 75 firms operated by 1950, employing over 3,000 people. By 1967, this estate had extended to 200 acres.

At the same time, in the north part of the current travel-to-work-area, the coal industry declined as rapidly as it had grown. In the mid-1920s, there were 409 local collieries, employing 40,000 men; but by the 1970s there were only seven working collieries employing 6,000.

Its population, unlike the two other research sites, has increased since 1981, partly due to in-migration but mostly because of a relatively high birth rate coupled with a low death rate, the highest and lowest respectively in South Wales (Welsh Office, 1996).