Youth Unemployment and the Family : Voices of Disordered Times

First published in 1992, Youth Unemployment and the Family examines an area of social life which has not been investigated widely: the relationship between parents and young adults living in the parental home. Tracing the effects of a poor labour market on 40 families in the North-East, the book reveals how change in the public domain of the economy penetrates the routines and intimacies of family life.

The text gives voice to those affected, particularly to parents, who are seldom heard, revealing the continuing importance of the family in times of stress and its role in the mediation of social change. As well as social change, the theme of social order runs through the book: the pursuit of order and predictability through which people try to make sense of their lives, the resources out of which such order is constructed, and the essential fragility of the order created. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the price paid for the economic restructuring of Britain that has been underway since the 1970s and challenges the notion that unemployment is more easily borne by those living in regions where it has been endemic. The book will be of interest to researchers of sociology, social anthropology, political economy, social policy and to anyone interested in working -class family and working-class culture.