News

The changing face of society as industrial complexion changes

(1 December 2004)

“The Post-industrial Future?- Society in the North East in the 21st Century” is the title of a major inaugural lecture by Professor David Byrne, Head of the School of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Durham.

Thirty years ago the majority of working adults in the North east had jobs in the more traditional industries and the pattern of employment had changed little since the Industrial Revolution.

Today things are very different and less than a quarter of a much smaller workforce is now employed in manufacturing, mining, construction or blue collar services like transport.

The period from 1945 to 1970 was actually the high point of the North East as an industrial region since so many women were employed in the new light industries which located here in response to a very successful policy of industrial diversification.

Although there had been changes the region was recognisably the sort of place it had been since the working out of the industrial revolution. Now things are very different.

In his lecture David Byrne will explore the background to and implications of this change in terms of the way people live now and are likely to live over their lifetime a child born into this post-industrial world.

He will do so with particular reference to South Shields as an example of a North Eastern industrial place- appropriate both because it is his home town and since the South Shields estate of the Dean and Chapter of Durham was the largest component of the original endowment of the University.

The lecture, which is open to staff, students and public, takes place in Lecture Theatre ER 201, Elvet Riverside, Durham, on Wednesday 8th December and starts at 5.30 p.m.

For further information contact : Professor David Byrne, University of Durham, Tel 0191 334 6826 e-mail : dave.byrne@durham.ac.uk>

Notes to editors

Professor David Byrne is a native of South Shields and a graduate of the University of Newcastle and the London School of Economics. He attended St. Bede’s RC Primary School in South Shields and St. Aidan’s (then) Grammar School in Sunderland.

After first working at Durham University in the early 19070s he was Research Director of the North Tyneside Community Development Project and then worked in Belfast for some years before returning to Durham in 1980.

Throughout his career he has combined a research and teaching interest in social change with practical; engagement in relation to the issues which derive from that change, including a period as a borough councillor on Gateshead where he lives.

He is the author of seven books and more than 50 articles and chapters in academic journals and collections. He also writes for a more general audience in Northern Review and in occasional newspaper articles.

Media enquiries to : Tom Fennelly, Public Relations Office, University of Durham Tel 0191 334 6078 e-mail :t.p.fennelly@durham.ac.uk