The authors attempt a detailed description of activities within the retailing, pub and club, and health care sectors in Derwentside. Using comprehensive interviews with employers and employees the study examines factors such as family background, wages and working conditions, recruitment and training, full and part time working, and flexibility in each sector. Concluding comments discuss the predominance of low wage, low skill, part time work for women in Derwentside and analyse why this has occurred. Further to this an analysis is made of the effects upon the community as a whole and a brief discussion follows of the possible emergence of a new economic order. -S.Tanner