Being Unemployed in Northern Ireland: An Ethnographic Study

This is the first major ethnography of unemployment. It is an account of the social, psychological and material circumstances of working-class, long-term unemployed married men in both Catholic and Protestant communities in Belfast. The author shows how the experience of unemployment is shaped both by local factors, for example, the sectarian divide between Catholics and Protestants, and by factors more generally characteristic of industrial societies, such as the bureaucratic administration of welfare benefits. The analysis of the intertwined problems of religion, ethnicity, poverty, and politics also contributes to our understanding of the urban sectarian divide in Northern Ireland.Leo E. A. Howe is the author of 'Being Unemployed in Northern Ireland: An Ethnographic Study', published 1990 under ISBN 9780521382397 and ISBN 0521382394.