Economic Change and Domestic Life

Abstract

This chapter reports upon research in Hartlepool, a town located on the North East coast of England, which stands as a case study of the impact of heavy manufacturing decline affecting Britain throughout the 1980s. Hartlepool had become established as a port for the export of coal by the midnineteenth century, and soon developed a thriving shipyard and associated metal industry. Decline began with the rundown of shipbuilding in the late 1950s, followed by the restructuring and gradual elimination of steel production, which by the early sixties had resulted in an unemployment rate of 15 per cent. The subsequent recession in the late seventies brought a 19 per cent reduction in job numbers and an overall restructuring of employment.

This research was funded by the ESRC, whose support is gratefully acknowledged. The present paper first appeared as ‘Informal aspects of social divisions’ in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 18, 1994.