‘There is nothing there’: Deindustrialization and loss in a coastal town

TELFORD, Luke (2021) ‘There is nothing there’: Deindustrialization and loss in a coastal town. Competition & Change. p. 102452942110113. ISSN 1024-5294

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Abstract or description

Based on 52 qualitative interviews with working-class individuals, this paper explores the social and economic decline of a coastal locale referred to as High Town in Teesside in the North East of England. First, the paper outlines how the locality expanded as a popular seaside resort under capitalism’s post-war period. It then assesses how the seaside existed together with industrial work, offering stable employment opportunities, economic security and a sense of community. Next, the article documents the shift to neoliberalism in the 1980s, specifically the decline of High Town’s seaside resort, the deindustrialization process and therefore the 2015 closure of High Town’s steelworks. It explicates how this exacerbated the locale’s economic decline through the loss of industrial work’s ‘job for life’, its diminishing popularity as a coastal area and the further deterioration of the town centre. The paper concludes by suggesting that High Town has lost its raison d’être under neoliberalism and faces difficulties in revival.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The following article has been accepted for publication in the Competition & Change. The final VOR is available online at: Telford, L. (2021) ‘‘There is nothing there’: Deindustrialization and loss in a coastal town’, Competition & Change. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10245294211011300
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Neoliberalism, deindustrialization, political economy, working class, capitalism
Faculty:	School of Law, Policing and Forensics > Sociology, Criminology and Terrorism
Depositing User:	Library STORE team
Date Deposited:	10 May 2021 09:57
Last Modified:	24 Feb 2023 14:01
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/id/eprint/6911

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