IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v52y2020i5p916-932.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The other side of coastal towns: Young men’s precarious lives on the margins of England

Author

Listed:
  • Linda McDowell

    (School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK)

  • Carl Bonner-Thompson

    (School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK)

Abstract

English coastal resorts are among the most deprived towns in the country, with levels of economic and social deprivation often exceeding those of the inner areas of large cities and former industrial settlements. Their dominant image in the media and other forms of representation, however, is of places of innocent fun and leisure, often associated with their history as holiday destinations for working-class families, although the darker side of these towns is not completely ignored. The lives of white working-class, year-round residents in these towns, however, seldom feature in representations or in policy and academic research. Here, we focus on the everyday lives of one group: young white working-class men whose employment opportunities have been adversely affected by economic decline, austerity and rising inequality. In places where employment is largely restricted to customer-facing jobs in the holiday trade, the dominant construction of youthful masculinity and the associated rhetorical view of these men as troublesome not only excludes them from the labour market but exacerbates their marginality. Through interviews in four English resorts, we explore the causes and consequences of their precarity.

Suggested Citation

  • Linda McDowell & Carl Bonner-Thompson, 2020. "The other side of coastal towns: Young men’s precarious lives on the margins of England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 916-932, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:52:y:2020:i:5:p:916-932
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19887968
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X19887968
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X19887968?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill, 2004. "Economic Change and the Labour Market in Britain's Seaside Towns," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(5), pages 459-478.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chadha, Jagjit S., 2023. "Foreword," National Institute Global Economic Outlook, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, issue 9, pages 1-3.
    2. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill, 2005. "The diversion from 'unemployment' to 'sickness' across British regions and districts," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(7), pages 837-854.
    3. Chapman, Anya & Light, Duncan, 2016. "Exploring the tourist destination as a mosaic: The alternative lifecycles of the seaside amusement arcade sector in Britain," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 254-263.
    4. Niesr, 2021. "Overview," National Institute UK Economic Outlook, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, issue 3, pages 5-36.
    5. Christina Beatty & Stephen Fothergill & Ryan Powell, 2007. "Twenty Years on: Has the Economy of the UK Coalfields Recovered?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(7), pages 1654-1675, July.
    6. Bhattacharjee, Arnab & Lisauskaite, Elena & Pabst, Adrian, 2021. "UK regional outlook," National Institute UK Economic Outlook, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, issue 2, pages 42-57.
    7. Roberts, Jennifer & Taylor, Karl, 2019. "New Evidence on Disability Benefit Claims in the UK: The Role of Health and the Local Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 12825, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. David Webster, 2006. "Welfare Reform: Facing up to the Geography of Worklessness," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 21(2), pages 107-116, May.
    9. Colin Lindsay & Donald Houston, 2011. "Fit for Purpose? Welfare Reform and Challenges for Health and Labour Market Policy in the UK," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(3), pages 703-721, March.
    10. Dominic Williams, 2011. "What do business rates measure?," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 26(3), pages 145-156, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:52:y:2020:i:5:p:916-932. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.