Thin Economics, Thick Moralising

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-43
Author(s):  
Roland Boer
Keyword(s):  
Moral Economy ◽  
Single Parents ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
The Uk

Locality, family, moral economy, virtuous elites, common popular customs – these are the buzzwords of what has come to be known as red toryism, which seeks to breath life into the conservative project in the UK. It valorises the local over the global, family over its discontents (gays, single parents, promiscuity), virtue over cynicism, common custom over bland commercial labels; in short, a return to the progressive, communal values of conservatism. The name most usually associated with red toryism – also known as communitarian civic conservatism – is Phillip Blond. Our brief in this paper is not a treatment of the whole red tory doctrine, but a critical examination of its economic policies and how they relate to theology, via morality.

scholarly journals ‘A Cockroach Preserved in Amber’: The Significance of Class in Critics' Representations of Heavy Metal Music and its Fans

2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy R. Brown ◽  
Christine Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Metal Music ◽  
Heavy Metal Music ◽  
The Uk

In this paper we engage with new cultural theories of class that have identified media representations of ‘excessive’ white heterosexual working-class femininity as a ‘constitutive limit’ of incorporation into dominant (middle-class) modes of neoliberal subjectivity and Bourdieu's thesis that classification is a form of symbolic violence that constitutes both the classifier and the classified. However, what we explore are the implications of such arguments for those modes of white heterosexual working-class masculinity that continue to reproduce themselves in forms of overtly masculinist popular culture. We do so through a critical examination of the symbolic representation of the genre of heavy metal music within contemporary music journalism. Employing a version of critical discourse analysis, we offer an analysis of representative reviews, derived from a qualitative sample of the UK music magazine, New Musical Express (1999–2008). This weekly title, historically associated with the ideals of the ‘counter culture’, now offers leadership of musical tastes in an increasingly segmented, niche-oriented marketplace. Deploying a refined model of the inscription process outlined by Skeggs, our analysis demonstrates how contemporary music criticism symbolically attaches negative attributes and forms of personhood to the working-class male bodies identified with heavy metal culture and its audience, allowing dominant middle-class modes of cultural authority to be inscribed within matters of musical taste and distinction.

Festivals of Transition, Greenlight Festival Leicester

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
The World ◽  
Hard Truth ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Brundtland Commission ◽  
System 1

The Brundtland Commission in its report Our Common Future (United Nations, 1987) is widely credited with setting down the first policy definition of sustainable development. In 2017 this report will be thirty years old yet it seems we are still a long way from living sustainably: If, as of 2017, there is not a start of a major wave of new and clean investments, the door to 2 degrees [global temperature increase] will be closed. (Birol, 2011) Green policies have been ‘adapted and adopted’ by mainstream parties across Europe, despite Green parties being a relatively small political force (Carter, 2013). The European Commission has become a worldwide driver of green policy (Judge, 1992) and market-based innovations such as the Emissions Trading System 1 , despite being celebrated and criticised in seemingly equal measure. Media coverage of ‘outsider’ party growth in the UK has swung towards the libertarian and anti-Europe UKIP recently, despite comparable and longer term growth in support for the Greens (Goodwin & Ford, 2013). Efforts have been made to disassociate Green voices from older clichés of self-deprivation: The Green party has changed: partly the personalities within it, partly in response to the changing world outside it....At the same time, ideas that were mainly theoretical 25 years ago – solar and wind technology – have been demonstrably workable...The Greens have become the party of possibilities, not catastrophes. (Williams, 2014). One attempt to imagine a sustainable future can be found in The World We Made, written by Johnathon Porritt from the perspective of a school teacher in the year 2050. The positives of huge renewable investments, progressive economic policies and a panoply of exciting new technologies are matched with equally plausible negatives of stubborn inequality, famines and riots. In the postscript, Porritt states: ‘If we can’t deliver the necessarily limited vision of a better world mapped out in The World We Made, then the hard truth is that no other vision will be available to us anyway, on any terms.’ (Porritt, 2013: 276)

Locating ‘Thatcherism’ in the ‘Here and Now’

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Farrall ◽  
Colin Hay
Keyword(s):  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Work In Progress ◽  
The Uk

This concluding chapter assesses the legacy of Thatcherism in the light of the preceding analysis. It does so by returning to two influential earlier assessments, written whilst Thatcherism was very much still a work in progress, re-assessing and re-evaluating its enduring significance with the benefit of hindsight. It argues that whilst Thatcherism may or may not ‘be with us’ today, the effects of the shifts in social and economic policies initiated by her governments will continue to work their way through the UK in a number of different ways. In ways which go unrecognized or are obscured by more immediate concerns, the legacies of Thatcherism can be distilled along economic, political, social and cultural lines. That not all of these consequences were intended—and that a number of the unintended consequences may appear more dramatic than some of the intended ones—does not make these legacies any the less important.

scholarly journals New Labour Ambiguity, or Neo-liberal Consistency? The Debate About Racial Inequality in Employment and the Use of Contract Compliance

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL ORTON ◽  
PETER RATCLIFFE
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Contract Compliance ◽  
Minority Ethnic Groups ◽  
Labour Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Key Barrier ◽  
The Uk

In 2003 the UK government set an objective that in ten years' time Britain's minority ethnic groups should not face disproportionate barriers in the labour market. A key ‘barrier’ is discrimination by employers. This article examines one potential way forward: the use of contract compliance. First, the article presents findings from the authors' study of an innovative use of contract compliance by a group of local authorities in the West Midlands. If contract compliance can be made to work and New Labour is committed to addressing racial inequality in employment, this suggests that contract compliance is an approach that the government should be seeking to develop. The second part of the article therefore considers New Labour's stance on contract compliance, which can be seen to be highly ambiguous. It is argued that if contract compliance is located within the broader context of New Labour policy development, what is apparent is that the professed aspiration for social change is compromised by a dominant commitment to the maintenance of neo-liberal economic policies. The conclusion is that it is likely that only limited progress will be made in achieving racial equality in employment.

A Report Fit for Children? A Critical Examination of the Work of the UN General Assembly's Special Session on Children, May 2002

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Justin Dillon ◽  
Stephen Gough ◽  
William Scott ◽  
Kelly Teamey
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
International Development ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Pure Spin ◽  
Special Session ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Heads Of State

From 8-10 May 2002, the United Nations General Assembly met in a Special Session on Children. Representatives from more than 180 countries agreed on 21 new goals in the areas of education, health, combating AIDS and protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence (Reuters 2002), The Assembly set six new targets aimed at meeting the goal of ‘quality basic education for all children’. In this paper we critically examine the strategies that the UN identified to ensure that the targets are met, in the light of our experiences researching and writing a report for the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on mainstreaming environmental education.At the Special Session, held in New York, children and heads of state evaluated progress towards achieving the 27 goals set at the 1990 World Summit for Children (UNICEF 2002a). The Special Session on Children was preceded by a three-day Children's Forum ‘for those most directly affected by the decisions made at the conference’ (UNICEF 2002b). As well as 350 children from more than 150 countries (reported elsewhere as ‘376 children and young adults from 115 countries’ (MacCentral 2002) there were ‘2,000 representatives of more than 800 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including many of UNICEF's partners in the field’ (UNICEF 2002b). The claim that the Forum was attended by ‘those most directly affected by the decisions’ is at best pious hope and at worst pure spin, but the size and scale of the event merits consideration by those working for and with children around the world.

scholarly journals Relationships between young adults’ housing tenure, elements of perceived job security and social capital in Britain

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwadamilola Aguda ◽  
Obas John Ebohon
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Urban Renewal ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Job Security ◽  
Housing Tenure ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Uk

Purpose Against the backdrop of the changing trends in tenure in the UK housing system, young adults are faced with different situations that continue to shape their housing consumption and decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships amongst young adults’ housing tenure, social capital and elements of perceived job security in Britain. Socio-psychological dimension of housing tenure decisions has been receiving attention by housing market analysts and practitioners seeking deeper understandings of the UK housing market dynamics, particularly in the wake of changing tastes and preferences of young people concerning housing decisions across major cities of the world. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approach has been applied to the harmonised version of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) from 2001 to 2015. Findings The authors discovered that British young adults’ homeownership decisions are increasingly influenced by social capital and elements of perceived job insecurity, depending on their tenure of origin. Furthermore, this study will significantly enhance the understanding of tenure shifts amongst young adults in the UK and provide property developers, local authorities and central governments the knowledge and information to guide economic policies, urban renewal towards achieving better social cohesion and sustainable communities. Originality/value Very little has been done to investigate the contributions of social capital formation, for example, neighbourhood or social integration and social relations and elements of perceived job security on housing tenure transitions among British young adults. This study will further provide property developers, local authorities and central governments the knowledge and information to guide economic policies, urban renewal towards achieving better social cohesion and sustainable communities.

The Legacy of Thatcherism

2014 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Life ◽  
New Right ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Path Dependencies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Welfare Families

Three decades after the election of Mrs Thatcher, it is perhaps time to take stock of the concept of ‘Thatcherism’ and the prominent role it has played in the history of post-war Britain. Of course, there is much debate about what ‘Thatcherism’ was, with some arguing that Thatcherism was more noteworthy for its rhetoric than for its achievements. Indeed, when it came to the welfare state little had changed after 13 years of Thatcherism. Some historians have additionally suggested that other social forces that had existed prior to Thatcher will outlast her. Yet, whichever way one looks at it, the Thatcherite project of the 1980s brought about a fundamental reorganization of much of the UK’s social and economic life. Did Thatcherite policies dramatically alter the trajectory of the country’s development? Can even long-term and seemingly enduring path dependencies be altered as dramatically as claimed? Ought Thatcher’s period in office be seen as a ‘critical juncture’ for the UK? This book brings together a range of experts in housing, economics, law and order, education, welfare, families, geography, and politics to discuss the enduring legacy of those social and economic policies initiated by the first of the UK’s New Right governments (1979–90).

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