Youth Unemployment and the Family

Voices of Disordered Times

Patricia Allatt, Susan Yeandle

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
30 June 2025

Sociology: family & relationships; Sociology: work & labour; Labour economics

Series: Routledge Revivals

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.

By: Patricia Allatt, Susan Yeandle
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781041053309
ISBN 10: 1041053304
Series: Routledge Revivals
Pages: 204
Publication Date: 30 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

List of Tables and Figures Preface 1. Introduction: Family, History and Biography 2. Local Labour Markets and the Household: Change and Flux 3. Independence and Work 4. Disorder in Time and Place 5. The Moral Community 6. Conclusion Appendices Notes Bibliography Index of Informants Name Index Subject Index

Patricia Allatt (at the time of the original publication of the book), Reader at Teesside Business School, Teesside Polytechnic. Susan Yeandle, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociological Studies and Director of CIRCLE, the Centre for International Research on Care Labour and Equalities, University of Sheffield.

Reviews for Youth Unemployment and the Family: Voices of Disordered Times

‘Allatt and Yeandle’ s book is a fine example of contemporary ethnographic research which balances attention to detail about values, emotions and actions with social anthropologist’s skill and interest in broader theoretical issues. The authors explain more vividly and convincingly than any other text how persistent unemployment erodes the social and moral fabric of private life.’ -Professor Ken Roberts, Liverpool University