ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the experience and consequences of unemployment in particular working-class communities in Newcastle upon Tyne, the 'capital city' of North-East England. The discussion of developments in the 1980s and 1990s addresses the key concern of the chapter, unemployment in the inner city, by focusing on the two inner-city areas: Walker and Elswick. It is based entirely on ward level analysis of secondary sources: the 1981 and 1991 Censuses of Population, and local analyses of the Employment Department count of unemployed claimants. The detailed analysis of the work histories of the survey sample explores the evidence which can be gleaned from statistical sources about what happened, in the areas where they lived, in the 1980s and 1990s. Morris provides a thorough review of the debate about the 'underclass' and its emergence from a Victorian view of the 'dangerous classes' to current political concerns about the emergence of a 'culture of dependency' amongst the benefit-claiming residents of areas.
