ABSTRACT
Over the last three decades, economic decisions and changes have radically restructured the local and the social across large parts of the UK, Europe and the USA. This chapter outlines these changes and, by using Middlesbrough as context, demonstrates how global changes and economic processes can have a very real impact on the lives of individuals at a local level. The chapter looks at how call centres and the service economy emerged to fill the void created by deindustrialization. As call centres replace these traditional working-class jobs, the chapter looks at entering the service sector and the process of getting a job on the post-industrial assembly line. Chronic unemployment since the late 1970s has resulted in official studies and surveys ranking the north-east as amongst the weakest in England on most indicators of economic competitiveness. More recently, the British National Party made gains in local by-elections, playing on fears of economic displacement and benefit-claiming immigrants.
