The English Riots of 2011: A Summer of Discontent

Description

From Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry and gossip to hard facts, research and empirical investigation, this outstanding collection looks at the nature and causes of the English Riots of 2011 one year after they occurred. Though worrying in their nature, speed and scale, the book points out that rioting is nothing new - even if technological advances have altered their 'organization', the way in which the police respond and the incessant nature of media coverage. From 'moral panics' to 'broken Britain' and anxieties about youth crime, the book looks at various flashpoints of the riots such as the killing of Mark Duggan by police marksmen, the widespread looting, the political and criminal justice responses and a growing discontent about the current neoliberal order. The book rejects Coalition Prime Minister David Cameron's much-publicized assertion that these events were 'criminality, pure and simple', just as it counters attempts to lay blame on sections of the community or 'outsiders'. Looking at phenomena such as 'shopping for free' and the idea that the lawlessness represented some kind of instant carnival, it concentrates on how order was restored and individuals fast-tracked via police cells and courts into harsh sentences as well as issues of marginality, hopelessness, political and economic corruption and media distortions. Wide-ranging and expert in its analysis, it also considers the modern-day global context for riots as well as comparing Brixton 1981 and other iconic events of the past. Further highlights include: the role of new social media in terms of recruitment, resistance, and surveillance; the role of the urban street gang; gender, racialization, resentment, post-riot rhetoric and the profiling the 2011 rioters. It looks at how the riots spread to other cities in the UK including Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham – as well as examining events and attitudes in places such as Spain, Greece, and those of the Arab Spring. Contents Acknowledgements About the Editor 1. Introduction • Daniel Briggs 2. Frustrations, Urban Relations and Temptations: Contextualising the English Riots • Daniel Briggs Part 1: Rioting in Context 3. Everything Changes, Nothing Moves: The Longue Durée of Social Anxieties about Youth Crime • Geoffrey Pearson 4. Riots in Retrospective: Immigration and the Crisis of the ‘Other’ • Steven Hirschler 5. With the Benefit of Hindsight: The Disturbances of August 2011 in Historical Context • Tim Bateman 6. Revisiting Brixton: The War on Babylon 1981 • Sheldon Thomas 7. More Police, Less Safety? Policing as a Causal Factor in the Outbreak of Riots and Public Disturbances • Axel Klein Part 2: Who, How and Why? 8. Gone Shopping: Inarticulate Politics in the English Riots of 2011 • Simon Winlow and Steve Hall 9. Policing the Riots: New Social Media as Recruitment, Resistance, and Surveillance • Stephanie Alice Baker 10. Street Government: The Role of the Urban Street Gang in the London Riots • Simon Harding 11. Reading the Riots Through Gender: A Feminist Reflection on England’s 2011 Riots • Liz Kelly and Aisha K. Gill Part 3: The Aftermath 12. ‘There Are None Sicker Than the ED L’: Narratives of Racialisation and Resentment from Whitehall and Eltham, London • Joel Busher 13. From Words of Action to the Action of Words: Politics, Post-riot Rhetoric and Contractual Governance • Vicky Heap and Hannah Smithson 14. Profiling the ‘Rioters’: Findings from Manchester • Rebecca Clarke 15. Rurality and the Riots: From the Panel to the Village Pub • Steve Briggs Part 4: The Wider Picture: Social Change and Global Discontent 16. State-Sponsored Riot: Tales of Revolt and Crime in Egypt 2011 • John Strawson 17. ‘If You Won’t Let Us Dream, Then We Won’t Let You Sleep’: Demarcation of Spaces and the Rise of the Spanish 15 M • Lorenzo Navarréte-Moreno, Celia Díaz-Catalán and Ricardo Zúñiga 18. Post-Modern Greek Tragedy: Walking in the Steps of Thucydides in Athens • Daniel Briggs 19. Concluding Thoughts • Daniel Briggs Index