Int. J. Pluralism and Economics Education, Vol. X, No. Y, xxxx 1 Copyright © 20XX Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Unscripted economics in an industrial community Marie Christine Duggan Department of Economics, Keene State College, 229 Main St., Keene, New Hampshire, USA Email: mduggan@keene.edu Abstract: One third of US manufacturing jobs disappeared between 2001 and 2009 and the conventional explanations (low wages overseas, robots taking over) do not apply to the capital goods producers in Keene, New Hampshire, where the author teaches. Local firms compete with high wage counterparts and firms using robots hire people as well. De/reindustrialisation ascertains the cause(s) of industrial contraction – or success. Students visit plants in the local industrial base and conduct oral history interviews, analyse annual reports and apply specific concepts of economic theory. The course is interdisciplinary, involves undergraduate research and civic engagement and uses open education assignments. Unscripted learning has proved the great motivator, as students navigate their oral history interviews and the community presentation. The course succeeds in motivating students and it serves the community, conveys research skills and pushes the teacher to take economic theory in practical directions. Keywords: undergraduate research; open education; economics; community engagement; service-learning; deindustrialisation; unscripted learning. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Duggan, M.C. (xxxx) ‘Unscripted economics in an industrial community’, Int. J. Pluralism and Economics Education, Vol. X, No. Y, pp.xxx–xxx. Biographical notes: Marie Christine Duggan has taught Economics at Keene State College for 19 years. She received her PhD from the New School for Social Research and writes for Dollars & Sense. 1 Introduction One-third of US manufacturing jobs disappeared between 2001 and 2009 – roughly 5.6 million jobs – and in the decade since (2009 to 2018) only 1.2 million have returned. 1 This loss hit hard Keene, New Hampshire, where the author teaches. While many attribute the decline to China’s low wage labour force, this community produces precision technology and other capital goods, where the competitors are in high wage nations such as Japan, Germany and Switzerland. Others argue that robots are replacing people on the shop floor and yet national income and product accounts (NIPA) illustrate that US firms invested 56% of their operating profits into new equipment in 2000, but that figure fell steadily to 20% in 2003 and continued to a nadir of –7% in 2009, recovering only to the 27% level in 2015, the best year for capital investment since 2009