Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class

Product Information

Cruddas, Jon (3 June 2011). "Book of the week: Chavs: the demonization of the working class by Owen Jones". The Independent . Retrieved 12 October 2014. In a world where we have recently seen economic collapse and the formation of the 'Occupy 'movement, Owen Jones' 'Chavs' is at it's most relevant. As the rich-poor wealth gap grows, there is a global feeling of disfranchisment among the 99%, and with the United Kingdom being one of the most unequal countries in the West, questions are being raised as to why this is happening. Ruth Aylett". Heriot-Watt Research Portal. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020 . Retrieved 21 March 2021. En cambio, un banquero de la City destruye 7 libras de valor social por cada libra de salario (salarios muy altos). Los ejecutivos publicitarios destruyen 11 libras por libra de salario. Puedes tener un trabajo mal pagado aunque tu contribución sea decisiva. Puedes ganar mucho dinero aunque tu trabajo sea destruir las vidas de otros. From the No.1 bestselling author of The Establishment, an urgent analysis of where the Left - and Britain - goes next

Time to abolish Oxbridge?". The Oxford Student. 9 June 2011. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013 . Retrieved 18 February 2012. Though definitely not a great work of theory, or academic in nature, Jones is quite capable of using the statistical evidence to underline his points, and includes data on such things as the growing disparities in wealth, the lower proportion of GDP going to wages (as opposed to the increasing share going to owners of capital), the effect of immigration on wages, etc. Jones has written, not a myth-busting book setting the world right about what is or is not a ‘chav’, but a reminder of the institutional demonization of the working class in general. His point, however, is not that working class people can be reduced to the status of a chav – rather, the mythical ideology of aspiration, from Thatcher through to Blair, has all but rid the working class of its pride. In 2012, Jones was Stonewall Journalist of the Year and in 2013, he was Political Book Awards Young Writer of the Year. [44] It was indeed Margaret Thatcher who persecuted the working classes of Britain, taking delight in causing British children to starve and live on the streets but now it is the liberal and left elites who have joined the Thatcherites in persecuting and impoverishing the British working classes.

Select a format:

The Independent on Sunday named Jones as one of its top 50 Britons of 2011, for the manner in which his book raised the profile of class-based issues. [26] In November 2012, Jones was awarded Journalist of the Year at the Stonewall Awards, along with The Times journalist Hugo Rifkind. [27] Jones' second book, The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It, was published in September 2014. [28]

Cuando Thatcher llegó al poder en 1979 había 5 millones de pobres en Reino Unido. En 1992, tras tres mandatos, había catorce millones de pobres en Reino Unido. El tejido industrial había sido destruido. Explicad cómo eso es bueno para el pueblo británico. Pista: no lo es.I grew up on a council estate and I remember the people who live on them with great fondness. I didn’t really know I was working class as I hadn’t become aware of the rigid structure of our society but working class I was then and remain now. That same fondness was once felt across the board, maybe not in full but the majority of people knew that those who lived on council estates were the “salt of the earth”, “the wheels of the economy” or simply that they “loved their mum and would do owt for you”. Those days and those feelings are gone and they are not gone because the people on estates have suddenly changed. Ash Sarkar: You don’t really hear the word chav anymore, and the symbols of chavviness – like hoodies and sportswear – have become the garb of tech billionaires. Even Riski Sunak wears a hoodie! What’s changed in how we think of class?

a b Jones, Owen (9 March 2012). "My father, and the reality of losing your job in middle age". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 . Retrieved 14 March 2015. Owen Jones". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 December 2016 . Retrieved 12 December 2016. The notes for the play suggested that the writer wanted it to encourage people to think about the nature of class differences in Australia – but really, you can’t achieve critical reflections upon the basis of a series of clichés and stereotypes. Stereotypes reinforce prejudice and stop people thinking. That’s literally their point, to allow us to not have to think about (or know how to respond to) people we press into the stereotype.

Ash Sarkar: I remember buying the book, and it had the Burberry cap emblazoned across the front of it. That image made the whole argument so tangible to me. Is that something you felt at the time, that as a country we talk about class as culture rather than as economics? Britain's indigenous working classes are put last in line for employment, council housing, health care, education and bank loans in favour of the exotic Third world immigrants (especially Muslims) favoured by the pc left elites. Dale, Iain (2 October 2012). "Top 100 most influential figures from the Left 2012: 26–50". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013 . Retrieved 19 April 2020. I found the play deeply disturbing. I’ve been going to plays at Malthouse Theatre for the last five years or so, and generally love the plays. But this year has been very disappointing – and this play all the more so. It was written by a young woman who said her family are working class, and that they think she is crazy for being interested in the arts. And so she feels she now stands somewhere between working and middle class. Don’t get me wrong – this is pretty much where I feel I stand too. It is an oddly isolating place to be – one where you never quite feel you fit in. If the play had been about this, it would have been one I would have remembered for a very long time, and possibly one I might have praised excessively highly.

Divide-and-rule political gambits don't work unless there are enough people who don't already tend, in some way, to one side or the other: classes are complicated entities. One example of this is how different people living in council housing reacted in 1980 to the introduction of the "right to buy" policy, which, Jones argues, was calculated to undermine working-class solidarity. Their decisions were partly a reflection of the circumstances they were in, and partly a reflection of their broader outlook as individuals. Some people thought the idea of owning their own home was wonderful, or held it as a long-term aspiration. Others found the idea repellent and saw it as a deliberate attempt to break up communities. Still others were concerned only with the practical elements – could we afford to replace our own boiler? Tattersall, Amanda; ChangeMakers; Jones, Owen (2020). "Changemaker Chat with Owen Jones: The story behind one of the United Kingdom's most high profile left wing figure". Commons Social Change Library. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022 . Retrieved 22 June 2022.I was committed to the left, and trying to make the left a massive political force. So I was thinking “how can I popularise this?” I wasn’t convinced academia was the way forward. So then I decided the best way of getting left ideas out was to write a book and provoke a debate. And the whole point of Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class was that left politics, at its root, was class politics. Who’s got wealth and power, and who doesn’t. But my frustration with a lot of left academic books was that they were aimed at quite niche markets and weren’t read by the sorts of people who needed to read them. In this groundbreaking investigation, Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from “salt of the earth” to “scum of the earth.” Exposing the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, one based on the media’s inexhaustible obsession with an indigent white underclass, he portrays a far more complex reality. Moving through Westminster’s lobbies and working-class communities from Dagenham to Dewsbury Moor, Jones reveals the increasing poverty and desperation of communities made precarious by wrenching social and industrial change, and all but abandoned by the aspirational, society-fragmenting policies of Thatcherism and New Labour. The chav stereotype, he argues, is used by governments as a convenient figleaf to avoid genuine engagement with social and economic problems, and to justify widening inequality.