Social Protest in 2011: Material and Cultural Aspects of Economic Inequalities

Abstract

The wave of social protest that swept across England in August 2011 has predominantly been explained by political elites through appeals to various approaches that have in common individualistic frameworks of reference. Issues related to the material condition of society are either little analysed or, among the political elite, ruled out as an explanation of the protests. However, it is clear from both the historical literature on social protest and the contemporary literature on relationships between crime and inequality that explanations ignoring inequalities, particularly economic inequalities, are problematic.

Let’s get real about the ‘riots’: Exploring the relationship between deprivation and the English summer disturbances of 2011

“…The voices heard during the riots were from some of the most disenfranchised individuals in society. Failing to address some of the legitimate concerns the rioters expressed (as outlined in the Guardian /LSE report; Lewis et al, 2011a) is likely to result in further misdirected policy responses antagonising tensions that already exist between those in power and the economically marginalised communities on the ground by contributing to injustices as well as further impoverishing those who are economically marginalised (see Grover, 2011).…”

“…Scholars from left-realist, critical and cultural criminological traditions have offered insights into the complex and varied interactions between inequality of opportunities and individual motivations for partaking in the disorder (see, for example, Bauman, 2011; Grover, 2011; Moxon, 2011; Sumner, 2011; Žižek, 2011; Treadwell et al, 2013). Critical traditions emphasise power relations and inequalities between the rich and the poor – the powerful and the powerless.…”

“…Evidence of such processes can also be seen in the Brixton riots (1981) when long-standing racial tensions and a sense of inequality and injustice motivated local communities to riot (Home Office, 1981). ‘In this context, it is perhaps not surprising that widespread social protest has recently been witnessed in England, because whilst the cultural emphasis upon consumption as the means of denoting and measuring success continues unabated, the opportunities for successfully engaging with such cultural practices have […] become more difficult in recent years’ (Grover, 2011: 3). This may also explain the widespread looting characteristic of these events and why the disorder was in some cases targeted at retail outlets (Grover, 2011).…”

Agitprop Rap? “Ill Manors” and the Impotent Indifference of Social Protest

“…Others made similar observations about the victory of liberal capitalist ideology (Grover 2011;Moxon 2011;Varul 2011) and argued that the nihilism of the riots may have had the external appearance of protest, but in fact had simply provided evidence of compliance with the underlying values of the free market society. There were, to be sure, deeper symptoms of unresolved social problems, but not genuine protest.…”

The 2011 ‘Riots’: Reflections on the Fall and Rise of Community

“…as typical and unexceptional) but to highlight the pernicious hierarchical categorisation of unrest which had come to infuse popular readings of 2011. These events were contrasted with and criminalised in relation to other important moments of urban protest, thereby linguistically isolating the riots not only as the actions of a ‘feral underclass’ (see Grover 2011), but external to ethnicised discourses of exclusion and struggle which have often underpinned the construction of urban crises in the UK. However, a gap in sociological analyses has been substantive engagement with this exclusion and purported exceptionalism.…”