Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

From “Infant Hercules” to “Ghost Town”: Industrial Collapse and Social Harm in Teesside

  • Published:
Critical Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article explicates the harms associated with deindustrialization in Teesside in the North East of England in the context of neoliberalism. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews (n = 25), the article explores how ongoing industrial collapse, typified by Sahaviriya Steel Industries’ (SSI) closure in 2015, has generated various harms. First, the article examines industrialism’s socioeconomic security and stability. It then explores the negative impact of SSI’s closure in 2015, including a sense of loss and unemployment. Next, it demonstrates how the absence of economic stability produces harmful outcomes, namely insecurity, mental health problems and bleak visions of the future. The article concludes by casting industrial ruination as an impediment to human flourishing; the normal functioning of capitalism represents a “negative motivation to harm” that prevents the stability and security necessary for individual and collective flourishing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Over the years, SSI endured various privatizations and downsizes of the workforce, and it faced closure in 2009, when it was temporarily mothballed (Hudson and Swanton 2012). While SSI agreed to a multi-million-pound takeover deal in 2011, it was viewed as a short-term solution because it contained outdated production facilities that required significant investment.

  2. Founded in 1926, ICI was a petrochemicals company in Teesside. Its pioneering chemical processing developed Perspex (plexiglass) and it was the largest global producer of ammonia (Warren 2018).

References

  • Beynon, H., Hudson, R., & Sadler, D. (1994). A place called Teesside: A locality in a global economy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briggs, D. (2017). Dead-end lives. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, D. (1989). Beyond the inner city. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canning, V. (2018). Zemiology at the border. In A. Boukli & J. Kotzé (Eds.), Zemiology: Reconnecting crime and social harm (pp. 183–202). Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Currie, E. (2018). Criminologies of the market. In P. Carlen & L. Franca (Eds.), Alternative criminologies (pp. 34–50). Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P. (2017). Green crime, victimization and justice: A rejoinder. Critical Sociology, 43(3), 465–471.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P., Hernandez, M., & Wyatt, T. (2019). Economy versus environment: How corporate actors harm both. Critical Criminology: An International Journal, 27(1), 85–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeKeseredy, W., & Schwartz, M. (2010). Friedman economic policies, social exclusion, and crime: Toward a gendered left realist subcultural theory. Crime, Law and Social Change, 54(2), 159–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D. (2004). Prime suspect: Murder in Britain. In P. Hillyard, C. Pantazis, S. Tombs, & D. Gordon (Eds.), Beyond criminology: Taking harm seriously (pp. 178–192). London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D. (2015). Inequality and the 1%. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doussard, M., Peck, J., & Theodore, N. (2009). After deindustrialization: Uneven growth and economic inequality in “Postindustrial” Chicago. Economic Geography, 85(2), 183–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkheim, E. (2006 [1897]). On Suicide. London: Penguin.

  • Ellis, A. (2016). Men, masculinities and violence. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emery, J. (2018). Belonging, memory and history in the north Nottinghamshire coalfield. Journal of Historical Geography, 59[January], 77–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • English Indices of Deprivation. (2019). The English indices of deprivation 2019. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Retrieved April 24, 2020, from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/835115/IoD2019_Statistical_Release.pdf.

  • Fisher, M. (2009). Capitalist realism: Is there no alternative?. Ropely: Zero Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, M. (2018). K Punk: The collected and unpublished writings of Mark Fisher. London: Repeater Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1975). Legitimation crisis. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (2012). Theorizing crime and deviance. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S., & Winlow, S. (2015). Revitalizing criminological theory: Towards a new ultra-realism. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S., Winlow, S., & Ancrum, C. (2008). Criminal identities and consumer culture. Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2010). The enigma of capital. London: Profile.

    Google Scholar 

  • High, S. (2003). Industrial sunset: The making of North America’s Rust Belt, 1969–1984. London: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillyard, P., & Tombs, S. (2004). Beyond criminology? In P. Hillyard, C. Pantazis, S. Tombs, & D. Gordon (Eds.), Beyond criminology: Taking harm seriously (pp. 10–30). London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hillyard, P., & Tombs, S. (2017). Social harm and zemiology. In A. Liebling, S. Maruna, & L. McAra (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of criminology (6 ed.). Oxford: University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, R. (2005). Rethinking change in old industrial regions: Reflecting on the experiences of North East England. Environment and Planning, 37(4), 581–596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, R., & Swanton, D. (2012). Global shifts in contemporary times: The changing trajectories of steel towns in China, Germany and the United Kingdom. European Urban and Regional Studies, 19(1), 6–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotzé, J. (2018). Criminology or zemiology? Yes, please! On the refusal of choice between false alternatives. In A. Boukli & J. Kotzé (Eds.), Zemiology: Reconnecting crime and social harm (pp. 85–106). Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotzé, J. (2019). The myth of the ‘crime decline’: Exploring change and continuity in crime and harm. Abingdon, Oxon, UK: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lasslett, K. (2010). Crime or social harm? A dialectical perspective. Crime, Law and Social Change, 54(1), 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linkon, S. L. (2013). Narrating past and future: Deindustrialized landscapes as resources. International Labor and Working-Class History, 84(1), 38–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linkon, S. L., & Russo, J. (2002). Steeltown USA: Work and memory in Youngstown. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, A. (2013). Labor markets and identity on the post-industrial assembly line. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, A. (2018). The harms of work. Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, A. (2019). Harm at work: Bullying and special liberty in the retail sector. Critical Criminology: An International Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-019-09445-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. (2017). Conceptualizing green victimization, green criminology and political economy: A reply. Critical Sociology, 43(3), 473–478.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. J., Long, M. A., Stretesky, P. B., & Barrett, K. L. (2019). Measuring the ecological impact of the wealthy: Excessive consumption, ecological disorganization, green crime, and justice. Social Currents, 6(4), 377–395.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, R., & Marsh, J. (2005). Disconnected youth? Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, R., & Shildrick, T. (2013). Youth and wellbeing: Experiencing bereavement and ill health in marginalized young people’s transitions. Sociology of Health & Illness, 35(1), 147–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mah, A. (2013). Industrial ruination, community and place: Landscapes and legacies of urban decline. London: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. (1976). Capital (Vol. 1). London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, R., Maume, M., & Miller, W. (2001). Deindustrialization, economic distress, and homicide rates in midsized rustbelt cities. Homicide Studies, 5(2), 83–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W., & Fazi, S. (2017). Reclaiming the state. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nettleingham, D. (2019). Beyond the heartlands: Deindustrialization, naturalization and the meaning of an ‘industrial’ tradition. The British Journal of Sociology, 70(2), 610–626.

    Google Scholar 

  • ONS. (2020a). Labor market in the regions of the UK: April 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2020, from https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/regionallabourmarket/april2020.

  • ONS. (2020b). Crime in England and Wales: Police force area data tables. Retrieved April 24, 2020, from https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/policeforceareadatatables.

  • Pemberton, S. (2016). Harmful societies: Understanding social harm. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century. London: Belknap.

    Google Scholar 

  • Public Health England. (2020). Local authority health profiles: Profiles for North East. Retrieved April 24, 2020, from https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/health-profiles/area-search-results/E12000001?search_type=list-child-areas&place_name=North%20East.

  • Quinney, R. (1970). The social reality of crime. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymen, T. (2019). The enigma of social harm and the barrier of liberalism: Why zemiology needs a theory of the good. Justice, Power and Resistance, 3(1), 134–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymen, T., & Smith, O. (2019). Deviant leisure: A critical criminological perspective for the twenty-first century. Critical Criminology: An International Journal, 27(1), 115–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, J. (2013). Youngstown’s ‘ghost’? Memory, identity, and deindustrialization. International Labor and Working-Class History, 84(1), 55–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savage, M. (2015). Social class in the 21st century. Gretna, LA: Pelican.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shildrick, T., et al. (2012). Poverty and insecurity. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slobodian, Q. (2018). Globalists. London: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Standing, G. (2011). The Precariat: The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiegler, B. (2019). The age of disruption: Technology and madness in computational capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strangleman, T. (2017). Deindustrialization and the historical sociological imagination: Making sense of work and industrial change. Sociology, 51(2), 466–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strangleman, T., & Rhodes, J. (2014). The ‘new’ sociology of deindustrialization? Understanding industrial change. Sociology Compass, 8(4), 411–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strangleman, T., Rhodes, J., & Linkon, S. (2013). Introduction to crumbling cultures: Deindustrialization, class, and memory. International Labor and Working-Class History, 84(1), 7–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland, E. (1949). White collar crime. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Telford, L., & Wistow, J. (2019). Brexit and the working class on Teesside: Moving beyond reductionism. Capital & Class. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309816819873310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tombs, S., & Hillyard, P. (2004). Towards a political economy of harm: States, corporations and the production of inequality. In P. Hillyard, C. Pantazis, S. Tombs, & D. Gordon (Eds.), Beyond criminology: Taking harm seriously (pp. 30–55). London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treadwell, J., Ancrum, C., & Kelly, C. (2018). Taxing times: Inter-criminal victimization and drug robbery amongst the English professional criminal milieu. Deviant Behavior, 41(1), 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2018.1519136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wakeman, S. (2016). The moral economy of heroin in ‘Austerity Britain’. Critical Criminology: An International Journal, 24(3), 363–377.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, J. (2018). Industrial teesside, lives and legacies. Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level: Why equality is better for everyone. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winlow, S. (2001). Badfellas: Crime, tradition and new masculinities. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winlow, S., & Hall, S. (2006). Violent night. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winlow, S., & Hall, S. (2013). Rethinking social exclusion. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winlow, S., & Hall, S. (2019). Shock and awe: On progressive minimalism and retreatism, and the new ultra-realism. Critical Criminology: An International Journal, 27(1), 21–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yar, M. (2012). Critical criminology, critical theory and social harm. In S. Hall & S. Winlow (Eds.), New directions in criminological theory (pp. 52–65). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, J. (2011). The criminological imagination. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the research participants for giving up their time to be interviewed for this research. Our gratitude is also expressed to Emeritus Professor Steve Hall for reading an earlier draft of the article and offering constructive comments. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers as their helpful comments significantly improved the piece.

Funding

This research was funded by a North East of England and Northern Ireland, Doctoral Training Partnership, Economic and Social Research Council (NINE DTP ESRC) +3 PhD scholarship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, Policing and Forensics, Staffordshire University, Stoke on Trent, ST4 2DE, UK

    Luke Telford

  2. School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BX, UK

    Anthony Lloyd

Authors
  1. Luke Telford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anthony Lloyd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luke Telford.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Telford, L., Lloyd, A. From “Infant Hercules” to “Ghost Town”: Industrial Collapse and Social Harm in Teesside. Crit Crim 28, 595–611 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-020-09523-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-020-09523-3

Search

Navigation