When I started working life, Margaret Thatcher had just taken office. Up until then, the general perception was that jobs were for life. You went to college or served as an apprentice and worked, often for the same company, until you were sixty five. But the Thatcher era signified an end to the jobs for life mentality.
The workforce is now more temporary and insecure but also more adaptable and mobile. Market forces mean that companies rise and fall in a relatively short time and of course the workforce is tied to these fluctuations. Throughout the 80s and 90s industrial architecture followed suit, with companies throwing up what look like flat pack buildings in a matter of weeks.
These images seek to reveal the economics of modern manufacturing through its buildings and its employees and understand the change from being defined by what we produce to what we consume.