Law, Alex and Mooney, Gerry
(2012).
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Abstract
This paper seeks to overcome the rather static effect of de-historicized, fixed categories of the British ‘underclass’. Crucially, we map the socio-historical development of class disdain and disgust across the distinct state-societies of Scotland and England through the frame of Norbert Elias’ account of civilizing and de-civilizing processes. Differences in the historical development of urban Scotland produced a colloquial common sense about lower working class ‘neds’ that oscillates between ‘humour’ and moral outrage, lubricated at regular intervals by a distinctive, semi-autonomous Scottish media. This is closely associated in the public imagination with more than a century of de-civilized violent gang disorder. In turn, this is accentuated by an autonomous Scottish criminal justice system and, since 1999, the devolution of major administrative state functions culminating in the prospect of Scottish independence dissolving the UK state. This fact colours all discourses about the underclass in Scotland.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
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| Copyright Holders: | 2012 Social Justice |
| ISSN: | 1043-1578 |
| Keywords: | Scotland; class; culture; underclass; de-civilising; consumption; criminalisation; media |
| Academic Unit/Department: | Social Sciences > Social Policy and Criminology |
| Interdisciplinary Research Centre: | International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research (ICCCR) OpenSpace Research Centre (OSRC) |
| Related URLs: | |
| Item ID: | 33863 |
| Depositing User: | Gerry Mooney |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Jun 2012 14:13 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Feb 2013 09:42 |
| URI: | http://oro.open.ac.uk/id/eprint/33863 |
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