ABSTRACT
Consett: clouds darken. (Newcastle Journal 5 December 1979)
The fight for Consett: steel men warn of ghost town danger. (Newcastle Journal12 December 1979)
Steel closure leaves Consett without hope. (Financial Times 13 December 1979)
Consett: an island of unemployment in a sea of unemployment. (Sunday Times Colour Supplement 1980)
Job creation fails to stem unemployment tide. (Financial Times 6 March 1984)
Consett jobless learning skills of life on the dole. (Guardian 25 May 1984)
Consett has seen the future - and it's workless. (Sunday Times Colour Supplement 15 September 1985)
The steel industry has played a prominent and often symbolic role in the twin processes of de-industrialization andre-industrialization which have characterized the period since the late 1970s in many advanced economies. Equally, many of the communities affected by these changes have become the focal point of media attention and political debate. One of these is a small ex-steelworks town in County Durham, north-east England. It is where, in one sense, this book has its origins. For this modest settlement - Consett - epitomizes many shifting and powerful elements of conflict and change within contemporary capitalist society. In part as a consequence, it has had more than its fair share of academic analysis as well as media coverage in recent years. The newspaper headlines
quoted above encapsulate such exposure and its changing emphases; there have been many more in a similar vein.
