Narrative and the development of Scunthorpe

This thesis considers the role of narrative in the development of an urban settlement. In doing so it develops an idea of operations based on the requirement for the production of surplus in order to more clearly show the role of narrative in relation to operations as well as the role narrative and operations play in the creation of urban settlement. It does this by means of a case study of the urban settlement that became Scunthorpe, looking at it over the long durée and charting how the settlement was created as an intersection of the changing requirements of the iron & ironstone industry and the changing requirements of local actors and operations. It examines the narratives of actors engaged in the development of operations in ironstone and iron. It further posits that it was not until those actors saw a benefit for operations in the amalgamation of multiple local administrations and forced it that official narratives of entity called Scunthorpe (emanating from its various local authorities) could emerge. In doing so the thesis pays particular attention to the collapsing of space and time due to operations and the network of operations and actors created by this that create the potential for an urban area. It also studies the actors across generations and space, in part to determine the origins of their entrepreneurship and capital or to determine if they conform to the “self-made” man narrative. The thesis also examines the adoption of the “Garden City” narrative, by an emerging Scunthorpe and how it was utilised in different ways at different times up to the present day.