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China has an appalling record of workplace safety in its coalmining industry. This article first traces the long-term trends of fatality at different types of coalmines, then analyzes why the number and rate of fatalities in the industry have remained so high, and finally discusses how the government has gradually overhauled its regulatory system to cope with the dreadful state of safety. Based on the case study, the article concludes that China's transition from state socialism has not resulted in a Hayekian night-watchman state but in a new regulatory state, which exerts controls over a wide range of economic and social affairs via standard setting, supervision, monitoring, and enforcement. (J Contemp China/DÜI)

IN 1966, A COALWASTE PILE COLLAPSED, BURYING AND KILLING 144 CHILDREN AND OTHER RESIDENTS OF ABERFAN, A COALMINING COMMUNITY IN SOUTH WALES. THIS WAS A CATASTROPHE IN THE PRECISE SENSE IN WHICH CHARLES PERROW USES THIS TERM AND RESEMBLED OTHER CATASTROPHES WITH WHICH WE ARE BECOMING ALL TOO FAMILIAR. THE RECORDS OF THE INVESTIGATING TRIBUNAL AND INTERVIEWS WITH COMMUNITY LEADERS CONDUCTED IN 1984 RECONSTRUCT THE CATASTROPHE AND ITS CAUSES AND SUGGEST ITS ENDURING IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY. FUNDAMENTAL TO THE CATASTROPHE IS ECONOMIC NEED WHICH PROMOTES TOLERANCE FOR A HIGH-RISK INDUSTRY. FUNDAMENTAL TO THE AFTERMATH OF THE CATASTROPHE ARE THE ASSERTION OF COMMUNITY VALUES AND ABILITIES AND THE DISTRUST OF EXPERTS MAKING DECISIONS FOR COMMUNITY RESIDENTS.

"Based on a critical Marxist ethnography, conducted at a state primary school in a former coalmining community in the north of England, this book provides insight into teachers' perceptions of the effects of deindustrialisation on education for the working class. The book draws on the notion of social haunting to help understand the complex ways in which historical relations and performances, reflective of the community's industrial past, continue to shape experiences and processes of schooling. The arguments presented enable us to engage with the 'goodness' of the past as well as the pain and suffering associated with deindustrialisation. This, it is argued, enables teachers and pupils to engage with rhythms, relations, and performances that recognise the heritage and complexities of working-class culture. Reckoning and harnessing with the fullness of ghosts is essential if schooling is to be refashioned in more encouraging and relational ways, with and for the working class. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in the sociology of education, and social class and education in particular. Those interested in schooling, ethnography, and qualitative social research will also benefit from the book Kat Simpson is Senior Lecturer in Education and Community Studies at the University of Huddersfield, UK"--