Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T03:19:06.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘Broken Society’ Election: Class Hatred and the Politics of Poverty and Place in Glasgow East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

Gerry Mooney
Gerry Mooney*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University in Scotland, Edinburgh E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper considers some of the ways in which representations of people experiencing poverty and disadvantaged places continue to be informed by ideas of individual inadequacy, dependency and disorder. Drawing on media reportage of poverty during the Glasgow East by-election in July 2008, it argues not only that people defined as ‘poor’ and locales that are severely disadvantaged continue to be ‘othered’ through such narratives, but also that this provides a clear indication of the ways in which the politics of poverty and state welfare are increasingly being fought-out in the media. It is argued that such misrecognition amounts to social injustice and stands in the way of progressive approaches to poverty and social welfare.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 2009 , pp. 437 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcock, P. (2008), ‘Poverty and social exclusion’, in Ridge, T. and Wright, S. (eds.), Understanding Inequality, Poverty and Wealth, Bristol: Policy Press, pp: 37–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allardyce, J. (2009), ‘Scotland on a par with Cuba for state largesse’, The Sunday Times, 11 January.Google Scholar
Blair, T. (2006), Speech to the Scottish Labour Party Conference, Aviemore, 24 February.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. with Eagleton, T. (1992), ‘In conversation: Doxa and common life’, New Left Review, 191, 111–22Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1994), In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology, Adamson, M. (trans.), Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Brady, B. (2008), ‘A Glasgow kiss for missing Brown?’, The Independent on Sunday, 20 July.Google Scholar
Cameron, D. (2008), ‘Fixing our broken society’, The Conservative Party www.conservatives.com, 7 July.Google Scholar
Centre for Social Justice (2008), Breakthrough Glasgow: Ending the Costs of Social Breakdown, London: Centre for Social Justice.Google Scholar
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2008), No One Written Off: Reforming Welfare to Reward Responsibility, Cm. 7363, London: DWP.Google Scholar
Dench, G. and Gavron, K. (2006), The New East End: Kinship, Race and Conflict, London: Profile Books.Google Scholar
Elliott, F. (2008), ‘On a Glasgow estate: David Cameron has hard words for broken society’, The Times, 8 July.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (2000), New Labour, New Language?, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (2001), ‘The discourse of New Labour: critical discourse analysis’, in Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. and Yates, S. J. (eds.), Discourse as Data, London: Sage/Open University Press, pp. 229–66.Google Scholar
Frost, L. and Hoggett, P. (2008), ‘Human agency and social suffering’, Critical Social Policy, 28, 4, 438–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gall, G. (2008), ‘New Labour's new workhouse’, Guardian, 21 July.Google Scholar
Gill, A. A. (2008), ‘Welcome to Glasgow East: the hardest, poorest place in Britain’, The Sunday Times, 13 July.Google Scholar
Golding, P. and Middleton, S. (1982), Images of Welfare: Press and Public Attitudes to Poverty, Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Gordon, T. (2007), ‘English tax to fund free Scots universities’, The Sunday Times, 10 June.Google Scholar
Grant, K. (2008), ‘Time to halt this £12b gravy train’, Daily Mail, 21 July.Google Scholar
Haylett, C. (2001), ‘Illegitimate subjects? Abject whites, neoliberal modernisation and middle class multiculturalism’, Society and Space, 19, 3, 351–70.Google Scholar
Heffer, S. (2008), ‘Labour's heartland is rotten to the core and dying of welfarism’, Daily Telegraph, 16 July.Google Scholar
Hills, J., Sefton, T. and Stewart, K. (2009), Towards a More Equal Society? Poverty, Inequality and Policy since 1997, Bristol: The Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, S. (2008), ‘Glasgow East will repay Labour with apathy’, Daily Telegraph, 8 July.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. and Brown, T. (2008), ‘Glasgow “work for dole” kept secret before by-election’, Daily Telegraph, 22 July.Google Scholar
Johnston, C. and Mooney, G. (2007), ‘“Problem” people, “problem” places? New Labour and council estates’, in Atkinson, R. and Helms, G. (eds.), Securing an Urban Renaissance, Policy Press, pp. 125–39.Google Scholar
Levitas, R. (2005), The Inclusive Society, second edition, London: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, R. (2004), Poverty, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Lister, R. (2008), ‘Recognition and voice: the challenge for social justice’, in Craig, T., Burchardt, T. and Gordon, D. (eds.), Social Justice and Public Policy, Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 105–22.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, B. (2008), ‘Inside Glasgow East, where Gordon Brown's a cursed name’, The Times, 12 July.Google Scholar
Macek, S. (2006), Urban Nightmares: The Media, The Right, and the Moral Panic Over the City, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
McKendrick, J. et al. (2008), Transmitting Deprivation: Media, Poverty and Public Opinion in the UK, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
McSmith, A. (2008), ‘Struggling for survival in Labour heartland’, The Independent, 12 July.Google Scholar
Milliband, G. (2007), ‘English coughs up for Scots’ free medicine’, Daily Express, 16 June.Google Scholar
Mooney, G. (2008), ‘“Problem” populations, “problem” places’, in Newman, J. and Yeates, N. (eds.), Social Justice: Welfare, Crime and Society, Maidenhead: Open University Press, pp. 97–128.Google Scholar
Mulholland, H. (2008), ‘Glasgow East by-election: Clegg calls for Cameron apology over morality speech’, Guardian, 9 July.Google Scholar
Murphy, J. (2007), ‘Progressive self-interest – the politics of poverty and aspiration’, in Griffiths, S. (ed.), The Politics of Aspiration, London: Social Market Foundation.Google Scholar
Murray, C. (1980), The Emerging British Underclass, London: Institute of Economic Affairs.Google Scholar
Nelson, F. (2008a), ‘Glasgow East is Brown's dirty little secret: a hideous costly social experiment gone wrong’, The Spectator, 2 July.Google Scholar
Nelson, F. (2008b), ‘The Glasgow East by-election shows us the two Scotlands’, The Spectator, 11 July.Google Scholar
Nelson, F. (2009a), ‘Scotland demonstrates the necessity of schools reform’, The Spectator, 30 January.Google Scholar
Nelson, F. (2009b), ‘The tragedy of welfare ghettoes’, The Spectator, 6 February.Google Scholar
Nelson, F. (2009c), ‘We shouldn't ignore the poverty in our own country’, The Spectator, 5 February.Google Scholar
Orr, D. (2008), ‘For many in Glasgow East, Labour picked up where Thatcher left off’, The Independent, 19 July.Google Scholar
Park, A., Phillips, M. and Robinson, C. (2007), Attitudes to Poverty: Findings from the British Social Attitudes Survey, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Peev, G. (2008), ‘Glasgow tests benefits “revolution” in drive to get thousands back to work’, The Scotsman 22 December.Google Scholar
Pickard, J. and Barker, A. (2008), ‘Tories launch “broken society” by-election’, Financial Times, 7 July.Google Scholar
Reid, M. (2008a), ‘A political timebomb in Glasgow's Guantanamo’, The Times, 3 July.Google Scholar
Reid, M. (2008b), ‘Labour's Glasgow fortress may succumb to apathy’, The Times, 8 July.Google Scholar
Rentoul, J. (2008), ‘The Prime Minister's nightmare scenario’, The Independent, 13 July.Google Scholar
Runnymede Trust (2009), Who Cares about the White Working Class?, London: Runnymede Trust.Google Scholar
Schubert, J. D. (2008), ‘Suffering/symbolic violence’, in Grenfell, M. (ed.), Pierre Bourdieu Key Concepts, Stocksfield: Acumen, pp. 183–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, I. D. (2008a), ‘Living and dying, on welfare in Glasgow East’, Daily Telegraph, 13 July.Google Scholar
Smith, I. D. (2008b), ‘Why talk alone will never end the misery I saw in Glasgow East’, Mail on Sunday, 13 July.Google Scholar
Sunday Times (2007), ‘Fixing a broken society’, The Sunday Times, 15 July.Google Scholar
Tweedie, N. (2008), ‘Glasgow East by-election: Labour risks a Glasgow kiss’, Telegraph, 19 July.Google Scholar
Veit-Wilson, J. (1998), Setting Adequacy Standards, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Watt, P. (2008), ‘“Underclass” and “ordinary people” discourses: Representing/re-presenting council tenants in a housing campaign’, Critical Discourse Studies, 5, 4, 345–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, M. (2008), ‘The green, green grass of Glasgow East’, Guardian, 15 July.Google Scholar
Young, J. (2007), The Vertigo of Late Modernity, London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar