Citizenship and the Politics of Exclusion in a 'Post'-Fordist Industrial City

■ This article examines the experience of modernity for steelworkers and their families in Hamilton, Ontario who now face unprecedented insecurity in production relations at the same time that they encounter shifting ideas about the welfare state. The article argues that at a time when the material conse quences of exclusion from entitlement are real and often frightening, these people draw on the discourse of modernity, and in particular ideas about state policies on immigration and social welfare, as well as their own situated historical experiences of class struggle, to reinforce their claims to entitlement and dimin ish those of others.