How do workless tenants of social housing perceive the advantages and disadvantages of their available pathways into work, in Pennywell, Sunderland? Moving towards an understanding of worklessness.

Abstract: Current research shows that the number of workless people living in social housing is disproportionately high in comparison to other housing tenures. The aim of the Thesis is to examine the pathways into work available to social housing tenants, to better understand the phenomena of worklessness. Our object of study is that of residents within a social housing neighbourhood in Pennywell. A case study has been made of Pennywell, utilising in depth interviews of social housing residents in the neighbour-hood. We use neighbourhood effects theories to measure the pathways available to the social housing residents, specifically social network theory, spatial mismatch and local institutional resources. Residents relied heavily upon very tight nit social net-works, creating an insular community that restricted the flow of job information. Spa-tial mismatch revealed that residents believed their pathways to work to be restricted because of a decline of jobs in the community. While, local institutional resources in the community provided the greatest support in finding work as they built confidence and skills.