Class and Contemporary British Culture

How does culture articulate, frame, organise and produce stories about social class and class difference? What do these stories tell us about contemporary models of success, failure, struggle and aspiration? How have class-based labels been revived or newly-minted to categorise the insiders and outsiders of the new 'age of austerity'? Drawing on examples from the 1980s to the present day this book investigates the changing landscape of class and reveals how it has become populated by a host of classed figures including Essex Man and Essex Girl, the 'squeezed middle', the 'sharp-elbowed middle class', the 'feral underclass', the 'white working class', the 'undeserving poor', 'selfish baby boomers' and others. Overall, the book argues that social class, although complicated and highly contested, remains a valid and fruitful route into understanding how contemporary British culture articulates social distinction and social difference and the significant costs and investments at stake for all involved.

Looks at how images of class difference are circulated across various different media, and analyses their influence on the way we understand social distinction, social value and social progress Taps into a resurgence of academic interest in class and social mobility Explores popular television, documentary, autobiography, journalism and political commentary Investigates contemporary notions of the 'chav', the sinkestate tenant, the politically dispossessed, the underclass, the new middle class and the upperclass subject

Autorentext
Anita Biressi is Reader in Media Cultures at the University of Roehampton, UK. Her research interests include news and tabloid journalism, reality television, class and popular culture, gender and political representation. She is the author of Crime, Fear and the Law (2001) and co-author of Reality TV: Realism and Revelation (2005).

Heather Nunn is Professor of Culture and Politics at the University of Roehampton, UK. Her research interests include political communication, formations of gender and class, documentary and images of childhood. She is the author of Thatcher, Politics and Fantasy (2002) and co-author of Reality TV: Realism and Revelation (2005).

Inhalt
PART I: INTRODUCTION: BEGINNING THE WORK OF CLASS AND CULTURE

1. Class-work: Social Change and Class Critique after the 1980s
2. Class-work after 'the Death of Class'
3. Class and Contemporary British Culture: Outline
   PART II: ESSEX: CLASS, ASPIRATION AND SOCIAL MOBILITY
4. Essex, Conservatism and 'the New Sociology of Aspirations'
5. The Discovery of Essex Man
6. I've got loadsamoney!
7. Class, Taste and the Essex Girl
   PART III: THE REVOLTING 'UNDERCLASS': 'YOU KNOW THEM WHEN YOU SEE THEM'
8. The 2011 English Riots and the 'Feral Underclass'
9. The 1980s: 'The Underclass, so Long Prophesied, is Now Emerging'
10. The 1990s: from the 'Underclass' to the Socially Excluded
11. The 'Underclass' Returns: Lifestyle, Consumerism, Precariousness
    PART IV: TOP OF THE CLASS: EDUCATION, CAPITAL AND CHOICE
12. Inspiring the Uninspired
13. Sharp Elbows and the Competition for Resources
14. The Choice-directive or Choosing to Choose
15. The Parent-citizen and the Deployment of Capital
16. More Dream Schools
17. Poor Choices
    PART V: THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY: CELEBRITY LIFE STORIES OF UPWARD SOCIAL MOBILITY
18. Celebrity Biography: Production and Consumption
19. Celebrities Working to Keep it Real
20. I Dreamed a Dream: Celebrity Origins
21. 'How did I get here from there?': Celebrity Endings
    PART VI: THE UPPER CLASSES: VISIBILITY, ADAPTABILITY AND CHANGE
22. The Business of Aristocracy
23. The Royal Family at Work
24. Upper Class Life-stylists: the Knowledge, the Gift and the Rules
    PART VII: 'ARE YOU THINKING WHAT WE'RE THINKING?' : CLASS, IMMIGRATION AND BELONGING
25. Borders, Belonging and 'Saloon bar' Britons
26. Hylton-Potts and the Cabbies' Manifesto
27. The 'Good Woman' from Rochdale
28. All White in Barking
    PART VIII: AUSTERITY BRITAIN: BACK TO THE FUTURE
29. In Times of Strife: the Myth of the 1970s Now
30. The Embattled Citizen: Keeping Calm and Carrying On
31. Past Times, Present Politics
32. 'The isle is full of noises': History Answers Back
    Afterword: 'We are all in this together'