Class and Contemporary British Culture

Class and Contemporary British Culture

Class and Contemporary British Culture Anita Biressi Roehampton University, UK

and

Heather Nunn Roehampton University, UK

© Anita Biressi and Heather Nunn 2013, 2016 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 First published in paperback 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–0–230–24056–8 hardback ISBN 978–1–137–57702–3 paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

For our parents Ruth Lena Biressi and Alfredo Carlo Biressi Sylvia Irene Winifred Nunn and Herbert Richard Hanslip Nunn

Contents

List of Figures

viii

Preface to the Paperback Edition

ix

Acknowledgements

xi

1 Introduction: Beginning the Work of Class and Culture

1

2 Essex: Class, Aspiration and Social Mobility

23

3 The Revolting Underclass: ‘You Know Them When You See Them’

44

4 Top of the Class: Education, Capital and Choice

69

5 The Ones Who Got Away: Celebrity Life Stories of Upward Social Mobility

94

6 The Upper Classes: Visibility, Adaptability and Change

118

7 ‘Are You Thinking What We’re Thinking?’: Class, Immigration and Belonging

142

8 Austerity Britain: Back to the Future

170

Afterword: ‘We Are All in This Together’

197

Notes

200

References

208

Author Index

231

Subject Index

236

vii

Figures

2.1 Essex Man as illustrated by Collet in the Sunday Telegraph, 7 October 1990

viii

31

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Most of the scholarly material for this book was gathered over the course of about ten years ending in early 2013. However, the book’s conception, scope and critical approach to social class and British culture originated much further back in time when both authors were writing PhDs situated in the context of Thatcherism and its aftermath. It’s fair to say that we were both interested in researching and exposing the dominant ideology of class distinction and conservative politics rather than the very important counter-cultural and oppositional movements and identities emergent at that time. In our very different ways, perhaps, we were attentive to the radicalism at the heart of conservative aspiration and wanted to expose the development of a defensive individualism which warded off internal dissent, external threats and alternative political models and ideals. Hence Heather Nunn’s (2002) first book focused on Margaret Thatcher, her political persona and how the media tied her image into the imagined communities and individual subjects she was said to represent. Meanwhile Anita Biressi’s (2001) first book on true crime entertainment explored law and order discourses in the context of privatisation, responsible citizenship and increasingly socially conservative attitudes. Looking back on these and subsequent publications it’s evident that questions of class distinction, social mobility, class injury and the material and immaterial inequalities which underpin these have always directed and held our attention. For at least a decade or more before the publication of Class and Contemporary British Culture we had been experimenting with rudimentary drafts of a book manuscript on class and culture, none of which appealed to reviewers whose view was that scholarship on social class, especially in British cultural studies, was somewhat passé. Palgrave’s encouraging response to a new book proposal in 2007–8 coincided with the arrival of the global financial downturn triggered by what seemed to be a busted free market economy. The ensuing economic turbulence, insecurity and implementation of an austerity regime by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat administration brought the contours of class difference back into stark relief. This helped to reanimate debates about what was at stake for those who felt that they were either vulnerable or ill-equipped to navigate the choppy waters of fiscal ‘corrections’ to ix

x

Preface to the Paperback Edition

house-prices, public services, pay, pensions and the welfare bill . The book suddenly came together and found its final form and urgency as an analysis of the increasingly uneven terrain in which neoliberal subjects were expected to either thrive, survive or fall by the wayside during hard times. As such it bears the hallmarks, strengths and weaknesses of a project which was a long time in the making but was finally executed in response to dramatically changing political and social conditions. This Preface is being composed only a few weeks after the 7th May 2015 General Election which resulted in a majority Conservative Government. At best this outcome has been deciphered as an endorsement of the Coalition’s handling of the economy and at worst as evidence of Britons’ general fearfulness, fatigue and insecurity in the face of seemingly constant change. Significantly, it also produced a picture of Britain divided by electoral preference and voting distribution with, for example, the Scottish National Party enjoying a landslide victory in Scotland. This electoral picture, together with other factors too complex to review here, naturally tests the value and pertinence of a study addressing class labelling, affiliations and media stereotypes in the context of ‘British’ culture. Happily, this study was well received on its own terms as an attempt to stake out the terrain, to log landmarks and to chart some of the shifts and changes which have taken place in the symbolic topography of class in national terms. Since 2013 many others have risen to the challenge of addressing the coordinates of social class, the menace of class labelling and the potential for social change from the perspective of particular British nations, regions, cultures and identities. We hope this book will continue to be read alongside these and will work in dialogue with them to produce new and productive ways of thinking about both the lived experience of class and the class stories we choose to produce, circulate and consume. AB and HN June 2015

Acknowledgements

This book could not have been written without the support of colleagues, former colleagues and friends at the University of Roehampton and at many other institutions. We extend special thanks to Roehampton for the award of a research sabbatical to each of the authors. We are also grateful for the friendly and painstaking assistance of Suzy Hyde and her colleagues at Roehampton Media Services in tracking down many of the broadcast resources referred to here. Staff at the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, North London, the Sunday Telegraph and the Advertising Standards Authority also provided information and advice. During the past few years we have been fortunate enough to have been given many opportunities to present work-in-progress at conferences, symposia and research centres and have appreciated fellow participants’ informed and insightful feedback. Special mentions should go to Jane Arthurs, Helen Wood, Beverley Skeggs, Patricia Holland, Diane Negra, Deborah Philips, Jonathan Rutherford, Milly Williamson, Gareth Palmer, Yvonne Tasker, Candida Yates, Caroline Bainbridge, Julie Doyle, Irmi Karl, Bronwen Thomas, Elke Weissmann, Vicky Ball, Barry Richards, Christine Berberich, Nick Couldry, Jeremy Gilbert, Imogen Tyler and Jo Littler for extending invitations to present research papers, accepting conference submissions and offering feedback on research applications, personal encouragement and other kinds of invaluable support. Sally Munt, in particular, has been unfailingly enthusiastic and encouraging about the value of this project over more years than we care to recall. We also wish to thank early mentors and former colleagues Alan O’Shea, Bill Schwarz, Angela McRobbie, Susannah Radstone, Andrew Blake and Sally Alexander; their own research, scholarly values and ethical commitment to cultural studies have been an inspiration and continue to inform our work. Our thanks also go to Palgrave’s former Commissioning Editor Christabel Scaife and to its present Senior Commissioning Editor, Felicity Plester, who have both warmly supported this project. We are also grateful to Kathryn White, Berni O’Dea and Miri Foster for their friendship and care. xi

xii Acknowledgements

Some of the discussion of the underclass which appears in Chapter 3 has previously appeared in a different form in H. Nunn and A. Biressi (2010b). Some aspects of our discussion of class theory and cultural studies which feature in the Introduction appeared in briefer form in H. Nunn and A. Biressi (2009).