Introduction

In the introductory chapter, the key aims and objectives of the ethnographic research undertaken in Meir North (a deprived area in Stoke-on-Trent) are outlined. Focus is given to why this research is of sociological and gerontological significance and the contribution it provides to these important fields. This research is situated within a contextual framework, as a historical overview of neoliberalism and the economic recession (2008) is provided, and there is an exploration of the methodological and phenomenological approaches that were undertaken as part of this study. The chapter concludes with a useful synopsis of the key themes of the research, inclusive of the recreation of human subjectivity, the rise of the individualist state, the stigmatisation and exclusion of the poor, the fragmentation of the working class, and nostalgia, which underpin the remaining analysis.