scholarly journals Social Class, Interactional Pragmatics and the Likely Lads

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-240
Author(s):  
D. M. Ponton

Abstract Long exposed to the democraticising effects of modernity, Britain's class structure supposedly collapsed during the 1990s (Turner 2013), though against this contention there is ample evidence to suggest that its essential contours are unaltered, and that the classless society is itself a myth (Marshall et al 1988). This paper explores an earlier period, in Britain's not too distant past, when the labels, 'working class' and 'middle class' were less controversial. The BBC's sit-com 'Whatever happened to the likely lads?' (Clement and La Frenais), from the early 1970s, was one of its most successful ever, enjoying both public support and critical acclaim. The show follows the lives of Bob Ferris and Terry Collier, two working class school-friends from the north-east who, after a period of separation, find each other again as they start out in life. While Bob is aspirational, attempting to achieve his goals of social progress through work, further education and marriage, Terry pursues the same lifestyle, viewing his friend's progress in terms of class betrayal. An episode from the series will be explored using a pragmatic-dialogic approach (Kecskes 2016), to suggest that the invisible framework of class needs to be invoked in order to make sense of the dialogue

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 655-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Warren

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that the application of social policy in the North East of England is often characterised by tension and conflict. The agencies and professionals charged with implementation of Westminster driven policies constantly seek to deploy their knowledge of local conditions in order to make them both practical and palatable. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the region via established literature from history, geography, sociology and social policy. The paper gives illustrations via empirical work which has evaluated initiatives to improve the health of long term health-related benefit recipients and to sustain individuals in employment in the region. Findings Central to the paper’s argument is the notion of “biographies of place”. The core of this idea is that places have biographies in the same way as individuals and possess specific identities. These biographies have been shaped by the intersections between environment, history, culture and economic and social policy. The paper identifies the region’s economic development, subsequent decline and the alliance of labour politics and industrial employers around a common consensus that sought economic prosperity and social progress via a vision of “modernisation” as a key component of this biography. Originality/value The paper argues that an appreciation of these spatial biographies can result in innovative and more effective social policy interventions with the potential to address issues that affect entire localities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (S1) ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Deakin

In the aftermath of the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016, the question of migration has been at the forefront of attempts to understand what happened, and in particular why working class communities in many of the regions of England, and in parts of Wales, voted predominantly for the Leave side. Polling data show a weak correlation between areas of the country that voted for Leave and high levels of inward migration from the rest of the EU. The link between immigration and Brexit is very clear in East Anglian agricultural towns like Boston and Wisbech, but otherwise is weak. South Wales and the North East of England, which also saw clear majorities for Leave, are not areas of high EU migration. Instead, they are regions that have experienced successive waves of deindustrialisation since the 1980s. The overriding issue raised by the Brexit vote, in my view, is not migration as such (although that is part of the story), but a wider phenomenon of deepening economic insecurity, and the dangerous political dynamic it has created.


Author(s):  
Joan Allen

The Co-operative Party was formed in 1917, though its obvious links with the Labour Party were not formalised until the 1920s. Whilst this development has often been seen by historians, such as G. D. H. Cole, as an immediate to conditions in the Great War and lacking in any real sense of class consciousness, Joan Allen sees it as a much more as a long-term product of the radicalisation of a membership which was gradually unwinding its links with Liberalism much along the lines suggested by Sidney Pollard. Examining the Co-operative branches in the north east of England, she argues that whilst there might have been some disagreement about establishing a political party for the co-operative movement, and difficulties with the local constitutions of co-operatives which were not geared to providing money for political activities, it is clear that was, for a long time, the direction that co-operative societies in the north east were drifting towards in a region where working-class solidarity always counted. There was not the diffidence towards political action and class consciousness in the co-operative movement which some writers have suggested.


1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (33) ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
Susan Friesner

The retrospective season of plays by C. P. Taylor at the 1992 Edinburgh Festival marked a welcome revival of interest in the work of this prolific Scottish playwright, who had also put down roots in the North-East. Taylor, who was born in 1929 and died in 1981 still in his early fifties, was a committed socialist who wrote sophisticated working-class plays for working-class people – and this not only made much of what he wrote unacceptable in the West End, but also, for different reasons explored in this article, unsympathetic to such venues as the Royal Court. Thus, while the range of his work reflected certain trends in British post-war theatre – the drive for regional and community theatre, dissatisfaction with bourgeois naturalistic styles, and the growth of the fringe – in other respects Taylor was untypical as a left-wing writer. His work deserves the reappraisal here attempted in part because of previous critical neglect, and in part because the reasons for that neglect themselves merit attention for what they reveal about critical attitudes. The author, Susan Friesner, teaches in the Drama Department at St. Mary's College, Strawberry Hill.


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 383-387
Author(s):  
Sue Browell

This paper considers the development of course tutors within further education colleges and universities in the North East of England who have academic responsibility for managing professional courses approved by the Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD). It therefore discusses the link between several educational institutions and the collective relationship between the educational institutions and a professional body It details the Institute's policy on continuing professional development and, in particular, the implications for course tutors. The reasons why it was necessary for further education and higher education institutions to cooperate in the first place are examined within the context of the professional institute – the collaboration is driven by the local branch of the professional body rather than by the educational institutions themselves. The challenges initially facing such an innovative project are explored and current challenges are reviewed. Finally, the achievements of the group are discussed and future objectives are outlined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Telford ◽  
Jonathan Wistow

Too often, members of the working class who voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum have been framed as uneducated and unaware of their own economic interests. This article, based on 26 in-depth face-to-face interviews and a further telephone interview on Teesside in the North East of England, offers an alternative perspective that is more nuanced and less reductionist. The article critiques some of the commonly heard tropes regarding the rationale for voting leave, it then exposes how leave voters rooted their decision in a localised experience of neoliberalism’s slow-motion social dislocation linked to the deindustrialisation of the area and the failure of political parties, particularly the Labour Party, to speak for regional or working-class interests.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadia Ahmed ◽  
Avinash Aujayeb ◽  
Emma Cowens ◽  
Adam Evans ◽  
Felicity Gent ◽  
...  

The purpose of study is to determine the degree of support for a general ban on smoking in public places and bans on smoking in specific locations amongst adults living in the North East of England. To assess the variation in support for smoking bans by smoking status and socio-demographic factors. Procedures: After appropriate training, ten medical students conducted interviews with members of the public in city centre locations. Interviewers adhered to a structured schedule and all participants gave informed consent. Quota sampling techniques were used to obtain a sample representative of the wider population in terms of age, gender and occupational social class. Main findings: Interviews were conducted with 538 individuals of whom 338 (63%) stated that they would support a general ban on smoking in public places. Support for a ban varied by smoking status and social class but not by gender or age group. Of the specific locations mentioned, support was greatest for smoking bans in restaurants and cafes (83%), shopping malls (72%) and workplaces (72%) and lowest for smoking bans in pubs and clubs (37%), the home (27%) and outdoor public places (23%). Conclusions: Local support for bans on smoking in public places in the North East of England is high - particularly in relation to bans in restaurants and cafes, shopping malls and workplaces. Introduction and enforcement of smoking bans in these locations would not be expected to meet with great opposition and may have a positive influence on public health.


Antiquity ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 50 (200) ◽  
pp. 216-222
Author(s):  
Beatrice De Cardi

Ras a1 Khaimah is the most northerly of the seven states comprising the United Arab Emirates and its Ruler, H. H. Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qasimi, is keenly interested in the history of the state and its people. Survey carried out there jointly with Dr D. B. Doe in 1968 had focused attention on the site of JuIfar which lies just north of the present town of Ras a1 Khaimah (de Cardi, 1971, 230-2). Julfar was in existence in Abbasid times and its importance as an entrep6t during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-the Portuguese Period-is reflected by the quantity and variety of imported wares to be found among the ruins of the city. Most of the sites discovered during the survey dated from that period but a group of cairns near Ghalilah and some long gabled graves in the Shimal area to the north-east of the date-groves behind Ras a1 Khaimah (map, FIG. I) clearly represented a more distant past.


1999 ◽  
Vol 110 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 455-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Güvenç ◽  
Ş Öztürk
Keyword(s):  

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