This lively collection presents a multi-disciplinary, multi-perspectival commentary explaining the what, where, and how of the riots that the austerity-hit UK experienced during the long, hot summer of 2011. It looks beyond London and its Tottenham district where disturbances started, to locations such as Manchester and Birmingham. Parallels are drawn with Cairo during the period of the Arab spring, and even with the Star Wars saga. The book locates the riots in historical context by looking at the previous UK riots of 1981 and 2001, looking at how news cycles and concepts such as that of 'moral panic' have changed in the age of social networking. It is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary debates in social policy, media studies, anthropology sociology, cultural studies, and human geography. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal for Cultural Research.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction 1. Suburbia Runs Riot: The UK August 2011 Riots, Neo-Moral Panic and the End of the English Suburban Dream? 2. Once as History, Twice as Farce? The Spectre of the Summer of '81 in Discourses on the August 2011 Riots 3. From Cairo to Tottenham: Big Societies, Neoliberal States, Colonial Utopias 4. Critical Consumers Run Riot in Manchester 5. Regional Narratives and Post-racial Fantasies in the English Riots 6. Contexts for Distraction
