'Work and After' is an umbrella title that includes a number of small and pilot studies exploring work and identity in the North East after 1945. 

In the decades between the 1960s and early 1990s, North East England experienced a dramatic shift in its economy that, combined with concurrent social and housing changes, had a marked impact on the region. While this was a period of intense decline in heavy engineering industries (for example, shipbuilding and mining), the North East also saw some early and innovative regeneration schemes.

Oral history is an ideal method for helping to understand the way ordinary people experienced and remember these events, and how they make sense of them in the present. 

Our key collaborator on 'Work and After' is Newcastle University's Labour & Society research group. 

Relevant Projects:

We Made Ships: a public history website
Deindustrialisation, Heritage and Memory Network
Apprenticeships and Sigmund Pumps