IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v18y2013i4p36-47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Riots, Restraint and the New Cultural Politics of Wanting

Author

Listed:
  • Tracey Jensen

Abstract

In the aftermath of the 2011 English riots, many political elites, journalists and public commentators obscured the material, sociological and economic factors which contributed to the unrest and instead connected the riots to a problematic kind of ‘wanting’ – wanting the wrong kinds of things, in a manner and degree that was constructed as illegitimate and vulgar in a time of austerity – and thus constructing the riots as a problem of excessive greed, rampant materialism and social decay. This article reflects upon how the riots played a key role in the political production of a new cultural politics of wanting, whereby wanting is made problematic, suspect, a sign of material fixation and of irresponsible consumerism. It reflects upon this cultural politics within the current austerity regime which manifests through a celebration and romanticisation of post-War restraint and re-animation of thrift practices and frugal living.

Suggested Citation

  • Tracey Jensen, 2013. "Riots, Restraint and the New Cultural Politics of Wanting," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 36-47, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:18:y:2013:i:4:p:36-47
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.3158
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.3158
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.3158?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lisa Mckenzie, 2013. "Fox-Trotting the Riot: Slow Rioting in Britain's Inner City," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 68-99, November.
    2. Marisa Silvestri, 2013. "Reflections on a ‘Depressing Inevitability’," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 5-9, November.
    3. 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.
    4. Emma Casey, 2013. "‘Urban Safaris’: Looting, Consumption and Exclusion in London 2011," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 48-56, November.
    5. Jasbinder S. Nijjar, 2015. "‘Menacing Youth’ and ‘Broken Families’: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Reporting of the 2011 English Riots in the Daily Express Using Moral Panic Theory," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 20(4), pages 33-44, November.
    6. Leah Bassel, 2013. "Speaking and Listening: The 2011 English Riots," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 18(4), pages 111-121, November.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:18:y:2013:i:4:p:36-47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.