From Streetscapes to Sofas: Representations of Place and Space in Britain’s Benefit Blackspots

Abstract

Representations of place and space in Factual Welfare Television (FWT) are under-researched, contributing to neglect of spatial stigma in austerity culture. In this article, we combine agnotology – the study of manufactured ignorance – with visual grammar methods to examine Channel 5’s Britain’s Benefit Blackspots (2017) to address why FWT is spatially significant. We argue that televisual representations of the abject ‘welfare claimant’ in Britain have a spatial dimension, evident in repeated camera shots of derelict, deindustrialised, litter-strewn outside spaces and large sofas, overflowing ashtrays and dusty corners inside homes. We conclude that FWT’s representations serve two functions: first, they obscure the spatial inequalities inherent in austerity policies by reducing social problems to constructed social types and their places and ways of living and, second, they enable sets of socio-spatial assumptions that become unquestioned ways of reading and understanding disadvantaged and disadvantag ised spaces of residence.

The Cutaway to the Toilet: Towards a Visual Grammar of Spatial Stigma in Factual Welfare Television

“…Moreover, even where cutaways were congruent with the explicit verbal narrative, they tended to focus on what we argue are disgust-inducing visual imagery. It is worth acknowledging that the narration in these programmes can be ambiguous: we are not suggesting that the narration is neutral (Harrison et al, 2021).…”

“…This research brings together a focus on editing with a consideration of how spaces – such as homes and localities – are represented in factual television programming. Our starting point is a recognition that representations of people in receipt of welfare rely heavily on specific geographical locations and accompanying footage of streets, buildings, and domestic interiors (Harrison et al, 2021). In doing so, we follow in the rich tradition of understanding space as a product of social relations (Massey, 1994), with specific attention to scholars, such as Crossley (2017), who link representation of space and place to stratified power, poverty, and inequality (also see Harrison et al, 2021).…”

“…Our starting point is a recognition that representations of people in receipt of welfare rely heavily on specific geographical locations and accompanying footage of streets, buildings, and domestic interiors (Harrison et al, 2021). In doing so, we follow in the rich tradition of understanding space as a product of social relations (Massey, 1994), with specific attention to scholars, such as Crossley (2017), who link representation of space and place to stratified power, poverty, and inequality (also see Harrison et al, 2021). To understand how moral judgement is constructed, our work examines camera shots inserted into programmes via cutaway editing that shift the audience’s view from the human participants to disagreeable aspects of their residences or local areas, such as toilets, household detritus, littered streets, and waste ground.…”

Rapid Evidence Analysis of Diversity in UK Public Service Television: What Do We Know and What Should We Find Out?

“…Information about structural inequalities such as those associated with race and gender is omitted, thereby individualising blame for the circumstances in which people find themselves (Forrest and Johnson, 2019;Harrison, Raisborough and Taylor, 2021). One study (of Channel 4's 2014…”

On the representation of places

“…3 The term 'representamen' was chosen with reference to Pierce (Harteshorne & Weiss, 1932, Section 228), for the frequently used term of a 'symbol' might suggest a non-physical Footnote 1 (continued) Artistic media such as various forms of text, paintings, music, photography, video, sound, and installation art convey narratives, which often refer to and characterize places (e.g., Aitken & Dixon, 2006;Al-Jumaili, 2020;Bailey, 2020;Barnes, 2019;Casey, 2002;Fowler & Helfield, 2006;Mocnik & Fairbairn, 2018). Besides such artistic form of representation, sound recordings, documentary photography and film, audio guides, itineraries, news paper articles, and many other forms of text often document places (e.g., Beckley et al, 2007;Harrison et al, 2021;Lombard, 2013;Bacqué et al, 2015, pp. 80ff).…”