This paper seeks to explore the uneasy and at times conflicting relationship between globalisation, the regeneration of communities adversely affected by industrial change, and the role of adult learning in building social capital. The paper presents a series of case studies where communities are utilising adult learning to develop alternative community futures. In doing so, it seeks to challenge the ‘simple story’ that has developed around the fate of the British Coal industry and that of the communities – pit towns and villages for the most part – on which it was based.