Breaking Britain’s Working Class: the Left Out

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Lisa Mckenzie
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Relative Stability ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Social Goods ◽  
Austerity Policy

This chapter draws upon ethnographic research within working-class communities in Nottingham and East London, families which rely upon public services, welfare benefits, and social housing. Since 2010 they are being subject to harsh cuts in their welfare benefits and also social goods through austerity policy linked to the banking crash of 2008. Rather than focus upon the economic situation of the poorest, this chapter addresses the key argument that there has been a significant change in the representation of working-class people, who have been negatively re-branded and stigmatised over the last 30 years. Successive governments have connected economic poverty with cultural and aspirational poverty. Austerity has been a constructed narrative that centres upon removing poverty by removing the practices, and the culture of the poor. The chapter argues that this rhetoric does the work that is needed in order to push through and justify inequalities. Those inequalities have taken the working class from positions of relative stability into serious precarity and undermined their ability to exert agency.

scholarly journals Fox-Trotting the Riot: Slow Rioting in Britain's Inner City

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Mckenzie
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Manufacturing Industries ◽  
Civil Unrest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Uk

In recent years there have been significant discussions and arguments raised relating to the position and behaviour of those who live in Britain's poorest neighbourhoods, however there has been little in the way of solutions put forward by any of the political Party's. August 2011 was a flashpoint in the history of these debates, the civil unrest which took place during that month has led to further and continuous on-going social and political debates relating to welfare, unemployment and a sense of disenfranchisement within specific neighbourhoods in the UK. This paper focuses upon a community in Nottingham, St Ann's, a council estate housing 15,000 people, who rely upon social housing and public services to as they say to ‘keep their heads above water’. The families who rely upon public services, welfare benefits and social housing are the poorest and most disadvantaged people in Britain, and since 2010 are being subject to harsh cuts in their welfare benefits. They are also the most vulnerable to unemployment caused by shrinking the size of the public sector, as they were to the loss of the manufacturing industries in the early 1980s under the Thatcher Government. This paper examines the lives of those who live on this council estate; rely upon social housing, local services, and when the employment market shrinks welfare benefits. The paper addresses the key argument that there has been a significant change in representation of how council estates and working class people who live in them have been negatively re-branded and stigmatised over the last 30 years. Although the focus of the riots has centred around five days in August 2011, this paper introduces families, and individuals who have been part of this ethnographic research over an eight-year period. Thus arguing that the disturbances in 2011 were an unintended consequence of a significant neighbourhood and community decline over a generation, but which has been exacerbated since 2010 with the Coalition Government's austerity measures.

Hope, Affect, Mobility

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Jarrín
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Upward Mobility ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Soap Operas ◽  
Beauty Pageants ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Poor Women

This chapter examines the narratives of upward mobility through beauty that are interwoven throughout diverse forms of Brazilian media—from journalistic accounts of recently discovered models to the carefully crafted storylines of soap operas and televised beauty pageants. It compares these accounts with ethnographic research among working-class parents who send their daughters to talent agencies or modeling schools. These girls' parents and teachers pin their hopes on performances of beauty because they understand the female body itself as a form of capital that promises a better future. This affective promise of a better future, however, becomes a moral injunction as well, sexualizing and racializing, in very particular ways, the poor women who are said to deserve upward mobility, emphasizing virtuous sexual behavior, European features, and straighter hair as essential components for success.

The Peer Group’s Agency in a Brazilian School

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Cinthia Torres Toledo ◽  
Marília Pinto de Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
School Engagement ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Brazilian Literature ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Educational Trajectories ◽  
Schooling Process ◽  
The City ◽  
Urban State

Black working-class boys are the group with the most significant difficulties in their schooling process. In dialogue with Raewyn Connell, we seek to analyze how the collective conceptions of peer groups have influenced the school engagement of Brazilian boys. We conducted an ethnographic research with students around the age of 14 at an urban state school in the periphery of the city of São Paulo. We analyzed the hierarchization process between two groups of boys, demonstrating the existence of a collective notion of masculinity that works against engagement with the school. Well-known to the Anglophone academic literature, this association is rather uncommon in the Brazilian literature. We have therefore attempted to describe and analyze here the challenges faced by Black working-class Brazilian boys to establish more positive educational trajectories.

Términos y Fórmulas Judiciales: Construcción de un Glosario Español - Francés. Elaboración y Proceso

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 183-193
Author(s):  
Laura Rodríguez Galán
Keyword(s):  
Public Services ◽  
Professional Challenges ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Court Proceedings ◽  
Appeals Court

Resumen: el presente artículo muestra una visión sobre la complejidad de la traducción en el ámbito judicial con respecto al uso de glosarios terminológicos. En el marco de la Justicia es habitual que los traductores e intérpretes judiciales tengan que enfrentarse a toda clase de retos profesionales, por lo que han de estar lo suficientemente preparados, y los glosarios de terminología específica son un recurso de enorme utilidad que facilita la tarea traductora al servir de puente de comunicación entre los intermediarios de la Justicia y los ciudadanos que solicitan sus servicios (demandas, procesos judiciales, apelaciones, etc.), ya sea por vía escrita (traducción de documentos) u oral (interpretación de discursos). La principal hipótesis de la que partimos es la urgente necesidad de crear estos recursos específicos para los traductores e intérpretes que trabajan en el seno de la Justicia, y cuya carencia no hace sino incrementar las dificultades que, sin duda, estos profesionales poseen a la hora de realizar sus tareas de traducción, dada la escasa disponibilidad de tiempo para que puedan elaborar sus propios glosarios terminológicos de consulta. Con este estudio lo que se pretende es mostrar tanto las ventajas como las dificultades de la elaboración de glosarios. Por último, los resultados obtenidos confirman nuestra hipótesis de las ventajas que tiene el hecho de disponer de glosarios terminológicos específicos para el área jurídico-judicial que, sin lugar a dudas, facilitan las tareas de traducción en este ámbito de la Traducción e Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos.Abstract: the present paper shows a vision about the complexity of translation in judicial field concerning the use of terminological glossaries. In the context of Justice, it is common for judicial translators and interpreters to deal with all kinds of professional challenges. So, they must be sufficiently prepared. Glossaries of specific terminology are a resource very useful that facilitates translator’s task, by serving as a bridge of communication between intermediaries of Justice and citizens who request their services (appeals, court proceedings, lawsuits, etc.), either written (translation of documents) or oral (interpreting of speeches). The main starting hypothesis is the urgent need to create these specific resources for interpreters and translators working within the Justice, and whose lack only increases the difficulties that these professionals have, undoubtedly, when the time to perform their translation tasks, given the poor availability of time to produce their own terminological glossaries of consultation. With this study, to show advantages and difficulties of developing glossaries, that is the intention. Finally, results confirm our hypothesis of advantages to have available specific terminological glossaries in Legal-Judicial area which, undoubtedly, facilitate translation tasks in this context of Public Services Interpreting and Translation. 

Abdullah Quilliam

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Siddique Seddon
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Political Influences ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
Class Struggles ◽  
Legal Advisor ◽  
Shed Light

This chapter explores the religious and political influences that shaped Abdullah Quilliam’s Muslim missionary activities, philanthropic work and scholarly writings in an attempt to shed light on his particular political convictions as manifest through his unique religiopolitical endeavors. It focuses especially on Quilliam’s Methodist upbringing in Liverpool and his support of the working classes. It argues that Quilliam’s religious and political activism, although primarily inspired by his conversion to Islam, was also shaped and influenced by the then newly emerging proletariat, revolutionary socialism. Quilliam’s continued commitment to the burgeoning working-class trades union movement, both as a leading member representative and legal advisor, coupled with his reputation as the "poor man’s lawyer" because of his frequent fee-free representations for the impoverished, demonstrates his empathetic proximity to working-class struggles.

Mary Barton

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Gaskell
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Elizabeth Gaskell ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Deep Sympathy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Class Community

‘It's the masters as has wrought this woe; it's the masters as should pay for it.’ Set in Manchester in the 1840s - a period of industrial unrest and extreme deprivation - Mary Barton depicts the effects of economic and physical hardship upon the city's working-class community. Paralleling the novel's treatment of the relationship between masters and men, the suffering of the poor, and the workmen's angry response, is the story of Mary herself: a factory-worker's daughter who attracts the attentions of the mill-owner's son, she becomes caught up in the violence of class conflict when a brutal murder forces her to confront her true feelings and allegiances. Mary Barton was praised by contemporary critics for its vivid realism, its convincing characters and its deep sympathy with the poor, and it still has the power to engage and move readers today. This edition reproduces the last edition of the novel supervised by Elizabeth Gaskell and includes her husband's two lectures on the Lancashire dialect.

Decolonization and Coloniality in Human Development: Neoliberalism, Globalization and Narratives of Indian Youth

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4-6) ◽  
pp. 207-221
Author(s):  
Sunil Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Global South ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Neoliberal Globalization ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
American Psychology ◽  
Urban Indian

In this article, I argue that globalization is interwoven with colonialism and coloniality and both psychology and human development are shaped by the enduring legacy of Eurocentric colonial knowledge. In particular, I draw on my ethnographic research in Pune, India, to show how the transnational elite, middle- and working-class urban Indian youth are engaging with new practices of globalization. I examine how particular class practices shape youth narratives about globalization and “Indianness” generally, as well as specific stories about their self, identity, and family. This article is organized around three questions: (a) How has Euro-American psychology as a dominant force supported colonization and racialized models of human development? (b) What kind of stories do urban Indian youth from varied classes tell about their identity formation in contexts of neoliberal globalization? (c) How can we create and promote models of human development and psychology that are inclusive of the lives of people who live in the Global South?

PUBLIC LAW STATUS OF AN EXTREMELY POOR PERSON – A REVIEW OF ADAM PLOSZKA’S DOCTORAL MONOGRAPHY

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (XX) ◽  
pp. 321-335
Author(s):  
Alexander Martin Juranek
Keyword(s):  
Public Law ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Global Level ◽  
European Level ◽  
Minimum Standard ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Constitutional Level ◽  
Legal Situation ◽  
Poor Person

The main purpose of this article is to refer to the Author’s considerations presented in his doctoral monography entitled “Public law status of an extremely poor person”. First of all, the appropriateness of the research hypotheses and questions adopted by the Author will be analysed with particular emphasis attached to the validity of the conclusions drawn in the context of the current social and economic situation in Poland. The second part is dedicated to considerations of a „strictly content-related nature”: from the analysis of solutions to counteract poverty at the global level, through the regional (European) level, to the national (constitutional) level. At this stage, reference will also be made to the standard of protection of the rights of the extremely poor suggested by the Author. The next part will analyse the extent of the discrepancies between the ‘minimum standard’ of protection suggested by the Author and the factual and legal situation of the poor. Conclusions in this area will be particularly useful for law application practice.

The community strike: From precarity to militant organizing

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 159-177
Author(s):  
Marcel Paret
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Informal Settlements ◽  
The State ◽  
A Site ◽  
Collective Actor

How do insecure layers of the working class resist when they lack access to power and organization at the workplace? The community strike represents one possible approach. Whereas traditional workplace strikes target employers and exercise power by withholding labor, community strikes focus on the sphere of reproduction, target the state, and build power through moral appeals and disruptions of public space. Drawing on ethnography and interviews in the impoverished Black townships and informal settlements around Johannesburg, I illustrate this approach by examining widespread local protests in South Africa. Insecurely employed and unemployed residents implemented community strikes by demanding public services, barricading roads and destroying property, and boycotting activities such as work and school. Within these local revolts, community represented both a site of struggle and a collective actor. While community strikes enabled economically insecure groups to mobilize and make demands, they also confronted significant limits, including tensions between protesters and workers.

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