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The Riots of the Underclass?: Stigmatisation, Mediation and the Government of Poverty and Disadvantage in Neoliberal Britain

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  • Imogen Tyler

Abstract

The riots in England in August 2011 comprised one of the most significant events of civil unrest in recent British history. A consensus rapidly emerged, notably within political commentary, print journalism, television and online news media coverage of these five nights of rioting, that these were the riots of the underclass. This article explores how and why the conceptual and perceptual frame of the underclass – a frame through which child poverty and youth unemployment are conceived as consequences of a cocktail of ‘bad individual choices’, an absence of moral judgement, poor parenting, hereditary or genetic deficiencies, and/or welfare dependency – was mobilised as a means of explaining and containing the meaning of these riots. It briefly traces the longer cultural and political history of the underclass as an abjectifying category and then examines how this framing of the riots was used to generate public consent for the shift from protective liberal forms of welfare to penal neoliberal ‘workfare’ regimes. In his response to the riots, Paul Gilroy argued that ‘one of the worst forms of poverty that's shaped our situation is poverty of the imagination’ ( Gilroy 2011 ). Following Gilroy's call for alternative political aesthetics and in order to engender critical sociological perspectives that might contest the downward social mobility and deepening inequalities which neoliberal social and economic policies are affecting, the aim of this article is to fracture the consensus that these were the riots of the underclass. By exposing the underclass as a powerful political myth, it is possible to transform public understandings of poverty and disadvantage and vitalise understandings of neoliberalism as class struggle.

Suggested Citation

  • Imogen Tyler, 2013. "The Riots of the Underclass?: Stigmatisation, Mediation and the Government of Poverty and Disadvantage in Neoliberal Britain," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 25-35, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:18:y:2013:i:4:p:25-35
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.3157
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jayne Raisborough & Matt Adams, 2008. "Mockery and Morality in Popular Cultural Representations of the White, Working Class," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Tracey Jensen, 2013. "Riots, Restraint and the New Cultural Politics of Wanting," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 36-47, November.
    2. Lisa Mckenzie, 2013. "Fox-Trotting the Riot: Slow Rioting in Britain's Inner City," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 68-99, November.
    3. Kim Allen & Anna Bull, 2018. "Following Policy: A Network Ethnography of the UK Character Education Policy Community," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(2), pages 438-458, June.
    4. Joanne McGrath & Monique Lhussier & Stephen Crossley & Natalie Forster, 2023. "“They Tarred Me with the Same Brush”: Navigating Stigma in the Context of Child Removal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Giorgia Doná & Helen Taylor, 2015. "The ‘Peaks and Troughs’ of Societal Violence: Revisiting the Actions of Turkish and Kurdish Shopkeepers during the 2011 London Riots," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 20(1), pages 83-93, February.
    6. Jennie Bristow, 2013. "Reporting the Riots: Parenting Culture and the Problem of Authority in Media Analysis of August 2011," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 100-110, November.
    7. Harriet Cooper, 2013. "Bodies and Voices: Reflections on ‘Collisions, Coalitions and Riotous Subjects: The Riots One Year On’," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 14-17, November.
    8. Béla Janky & Béla Janky & Boglarka Bakó & Péter Szilágyi & Adrienn Bognár, 2014. "Stigmatising the Poor without Negative Images: Images of Extreme Poverty and the Formation of Welfare Attitudes," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 19(3), pages 246-255, September.
    9. Marisa Silvestri, 2013. "Reflections on a ‘Depressing Inevitability’," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 5-9, November.
    10. Kim Allen & Sumi Hollingworth & Ayo Mansaray & Yvette Taylor, 2013. "Collisions, Coalitions and Riotous Subjects: Reflections, Repercussions and Reverberations - an Introduction," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 1-14, November.
    11. Emma Casey, 2013. "‘Urban Safaris’: Looting, Consumption and Exclusion in London 2011," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 48-56, November.
    12. Laura Harvey & Jessica Ringrose & Rosalind Gill, 2013. "Swagger, Ratings and Masculinity: Theorising the Circulation of Social and Cultural Value in Teenage Boys’ Digital Peer Networks," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 57-67, November.
    13. Joanne McKenzie, 2017. "‘The Person God Made Me to Be’: Navigating Working-Class and Christian Identities in English Evangelical Christianity," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 22(1), pages 213-225, February.

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