Title

Community Cohesion and Working Class Politics: Workplace-Residence Separation and Labour Support, 1966-1983

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1988

Department

International Business & Management

Language

English

Publication Title

Political Geography Quarterly

Abstract

One frequently advanced explanation for the mounting electoral difficulties of the British Labour Party in recent years has been "the decline of cohesive traditional working-class communities." This explanation is assessed by examining the empirical connection between the proximity of homes and workplaces in communities and the level of Labour voting. Regression analysis using census and election data for English constituencies shows that community cohesion significantly affected Labour support in each of the four elections analyzed, though not in the direction expected on the basis of contemporary interpretations of Labour's electoral decline. Cohesive-communities tended to support Labour less than noncohesive-communities. This effect increased over time. Several alternative explanations for these unexpected findings are considered in the concluding section.

Comments

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DOI

10.1016/0260-9827(88)90014-6

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