Urban Marginality and Labour Market Restructuring: Local Authority Tenants and Employment in an Inner London Borough

Abstract

This paper examines the changing employment circumstances of local authority tenants in the inner London borough of Camden within the context of the radical labour market restructuring which occurred in London during the last third of the 20th century. It draws upon survey data from the 1960s and 1990s in order to assess the scale and impact of employment and housing changes on Camden's local authority tenant population. The final part of the paper uses qualitative work history data to illustrate how the tenants themselves have experienced the increasingly 'flexible' and precarious metropolitan labour market. Various types of employment trajectory are outlined in relation to labour market participation, unemployment and gendered patterns of paid and unpaid work.