Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- Part One Respect in context
- Part Two Respectful young people and children
- Part Three Respectful communities and families
- Part Four Respectful city living
- Part Five Respect, identities and values
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- Part One Respect in context
- Part Two Respectful young people and children
- Part Three Respectful communities and families
- Part Four Respectful city living
- Part Five Respect, identities and values
- Index
Summary
Following electoral success in 2005, Tony Blair announced that his third term ‘big idea’ was to create a society of ‘respect’. According to Blair, ‘there is a disrespect that people don't like. And whether it's in the classroom, or on the street, or on town centres on a Friday or Saturday night, I want to focus on this issue.’ A government ‘Respect Task Force’ was established in September 2005 and a Respect Action Plan was launched in January 2006. This cross-departmental agenda built on earlier work targeting anti-social behaviour – a topic that had became something of an obsession during the Blair years, with its emphasis on the tough enforcement of standards of behaviour (Burney, 2005; Squires, 2008; Millie, 2009). But with the ‘Respect Agenda’ Blair was also going to be tough on disrespect (and maybe tough on the causes of disrespect?). Blair took some inspiration from the work of Richard Sennett (2003), if not necessarily Sennett's exact ideas (of which more later). In fact, in a speech to launch the Respect Action Plan (Respect Task Force, 2006), Blair stated that ‘Richard Sennett has written persuasively about the way the basic courtesies diminish with increasing material inequalities.’ How Blair intended to make people more courteous is another matter. Sennett was less favourable about Blair, and following the launch of the Respect Action Plan he commented:
Is it any surprise to you that a politician who elicits less and less respect from his public thinks that the public has a problem with respect. Blair wasn't worried about this in 1998. This Whitehall project is just the wrong end of the telescope. The issue isn't how individuals can behave better but how institutions can behave better. (Sennett, 2006)
Like that of anti-social behaviour before it, the definition of ‘respect’ was left vagu e, maybe deliberately so. According to the Respect Action Plan,
people are still concerned that the values the majority hold dear are not shared by a selfish minority. People do care when respect is disregarded – people find dropping litter and queue jumping irritating. But more serious anti-social behaviour like constant noise and harassment from neighbours ruins lives – particularly in the poorest communities. (Respect Task Force, 2006: 3)
Thus, disrespectful behaviour was equated with serious anti-social behaviour, but also with more minor annoyances such as queue jumping.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Securing RespectBehavioural Expectations and Anti-social Behaviour in the UK, pp. 1 - 20Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2009