Underclass

In this paper, I consider whether a theoretically defined concept of underclass can be helpful in social scientific discourse. I analyze, review and categorize the concept of a underclass and I made some suggestions for a use of the concept application in the study of social, psychological and moral consequences of poverty. It begins with a discussion of the continuing and pervasive appeal of structural explanations as the root cause of poverty. Then are also examined cultural theories, which by contrast find explanation for poverty in various elements of culture (ex. cultural traits of poor are thought to be different from those of the rest society). A third, a synthetic review of the urban underclass concept is explored. The article also describes the concept of a „culture of poverty” (taking into account the context of the subculture) and „lower class value stretch” as influential concepts in analyses of contemporary poverty and in explanations of the behavior of the poor.

This article deconstructs the wave of moral panic caused by reggaeton in Cuba to suggest that behind issues of “national” and “legitimate” culture lays a social but mainly political rejection to the marginal subject that this music brings to the fore. Reggaeton's embracing of money is a painful reminder to the authorities of the dreadful consequences of the dual economy and of the increasing gap between emergent values rooted in everyday life experience and socialist ideology. The text also discusses ethnographic work at performance venues that shows how this genre has been particularly successful in articulating not only the values and subjectivities of an underclass, but also the practices of symbolic distinction of more upward class sectors. In a different direction, the article exposes how reggaeton further participates in change, through discourses that voice the contradictory responses of male identity to the impact of sex tourism and the role of money in romantic relationships.

Este artículo analiza la ola de pánico moral suscitada por el reggaeton hecho en Cuba y sugiere que tras discusiones sobre “cultura nacional” y “legitimidad” cultural se esconde el rechazo social y político al sujeto marginal que este género saca a la luz pública. La celebración del dinero en el reggaeton cubano es un amargo recordatorio para las autoridades de las terribles consecuencias de la economía de doble moneda y del creciente divorcio entre valores emergentes anclados en la vida cotidiana y la ideología socialista. El artículo expone cómo el reggaeton también participa de la interpretación del cambio social en Cuba, al proveer de discursos que permiten negociar los riesgos que el creciente rol del dinero en las relaciones de pareja y el turismo sexual suponen para la identidad masculina. También se discute en el texto trabajo etnográfico realizado durante varios conciertos de reggaeton y que indican que este género ha sido exitoso no solo en la articulación de valores y subjetividades ligadas a una underclass cubana, sino también como escenario de prácticas de distinción simbólica de sectores sociales más favorecidos.

Keywords
reggaeton, Cuban music, moral panic, underclass, symbolic distinction, hypersexuality, reggaetón, música cubana, pánico moral, clase baja, distinción simbólica, hipersexualidad

Kirekesztett társadalmi helyzetű csoportok bemutatása kvalitatív kutatások alapján. Fő szempontok: az ágencia, az életútbeli fordulópontok szerepe, a kapcsolati tőke és a társadalmi kirekesztettség kapcsolata, droghasználói karrierek és szcénák, az empowerment lehetősége.

台灣無家者現象日益受到社會大眾及學界注目，但被再現的樣貌多是孤離原子化且缺乏社會關係；此外，他們若非為受國家、資本主義等鉅觀結構決定的被動受害者，就是具備過度無限制的能動性；結果，我們終未看見作為行動主體的無家者如何開展社交互動，並鑲嵌於整體社會之中。在此，我反省無家者領域文獻陷於客觀主義與主觀主義之缺憾，提出「場域內行動主體」的視角來分析無家者民族誌資料，主張無家者場域因江湖資本及身心狀態不同而區分成的三種無家者—「𨑨迌人」、「做事人」與「艱苦人」。三種人因過往生命經驗形成迥異的習癖，搭配當前擁有的資源及無家環境的特性，形塑出各自謀生方式及生活策略。同時，三種人彼此也透過道德劃界工作，來建構自我認同並獲得尊嚴。但是無家環境普遍惡劣的條件及不確定性也常迫使他們反思並改變行為模式，以致在這三種類型穿梭。如此，我們可看見無家者經歷台灣經濟發展及身處慈善文化脈絡下的特殊生存樣貌，從其中也看得出他們雖努力求生但往往難脫貧脫遊，持續生活在這個有「魔力」的公園場域裡，實則陷於底層的社會再生產過程。

This essay attempts to explain the class concept in historical and political context. As Ossowski (1963) argued, class is a complicated concept with diverse interpretations. It involves debates and claims around various aspects such as causes and consequences and the concept of inequalities. To define class, it is not simply to agree upon a formal definition of a term. This argument is supported by Erik Olin Wright, an influential new left theorist. He found that most theoretical discussions and disputes revolve around the terminological problem of the usage of the word ‘class’ and the concept of class (Wright, 2003). Based on Welshman’s study (2013), it is clear that the terms ‘underclass’, ‘troubled families’, ‘worklessness’, ‘economic and social deprivation’, ‘low levels of education’, ‘marital breakdown’, and ‘drugs and alcohol addictions’ are not new at all. In fact, throughout the last century, these terms have been widely used. The most important debate in this case, however, is the proof that there have been many policy discourses and plans offered failed to resolve these issues. The Times newspaper even highlighted that although ‘‘Broken Britain’ was an over-simplification, Britain ‘does have a depressingly static underclass’ (Welshman, 2013, p. 216).

F*ck May 68, Fight Now: Exploring the Uses of the Radical Past from 1968 to Today

Session 1: History is a Weapon

June 8, 2018

Department of History, University of Liverpool

https://archive.discoversociety.org/2018/09/04/circumnavigating-the-past-foreclosing-the-future-commemoration-of-the-radical-past-in-the-amnesiac-present/

A Ab bs st tr ra ac ct t This study aims to discuss theories on the violent effects of TV shows on viewers, especially on children. Therefore, this study includes a brief discussion of definitions of violence, discussion of violence theories, main results of researches on televised violence, measuring TV violence, perception of televised violence, individual differences and reactions to TV violence, aggressiveness and preferences for TV violence.

Edited version of published paper presented at 'Is Black and Red Dead?' Conference, Centre for the Study of Social and Global and Justice (CSSGJ) University of Nottingham, 7-8 September, 2009

https://socialhistoryportal.org/news/articles/110943

In this unfinished rough powerpoint for a series of lectures I explore why the United States is markedly different from other representative democracies and welfare states.  I trace the tradition of using a combination of bribery and corruption of the Congress and Judiciary, and violence and racist terror as a means of marginalizing organized labour and frustrating democratic control.  I explore how the contemporary crisis of social inequality, political corruption and racist authoritarian government long predates Trump, first emerging after Reconstruction in the Kleptocracy of the Gilded Age, receding somewhat under Roosevelt's leadership and with the Bretton Woods consensus, only to re-emerge with the Reagan revolution and the political triumph of the racist reaction to the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements, and the radicalism of the 1960s.  On the foreign policy side, the resurgent power of the oligarchy within the country and the brutal repression of the poor and marginalization of labour and the voices of the black radical tradition, symbolized by the ruins of Detroit and the South Bronx, would be matched by the consolidation of the policies of the so-called Washington Consensus.  This policy approach, enforced by the IMF, World Bank, and American military force and paramilitary violence, is often sold as Globalization, critiqued as Neo-liberalism, but might more accurately be described as a return to racist colonialism of the filibusters, Teddy Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson.  The talk, which is intended to engage non-academic audiences and avoid jargon and theory, ought to be read in conjunction with Richard Iton's Solidarity Blues, and WIlkinson and Pickett's The Spirit Level.

This chapter analyzes the content and profile of poverty in Slovakia. It describes the European concept of social exclusion, and finds links between this theory and Roma poverty in Slovakia. It analyzes the
mechanisms of social exclusion, and describes the situation of poor, segregated Roma communities from the viewpoint of these mechanisms. It considers the implications of the social exclusion of the Roma, and proposes several inclusion strategies.

Mit dem »Lumpenproletariat« haben Marx und Engels einen seltsamen, schillernden Begriff in die Diskussion kritischer Gesellschaftstheorie geworfen. Während das Proletariat Träger von Herrschaftskritik und sozialer Umwälzung ist, ist der Lump damals wie heute eine betrügerische und gewissenlose Person. Unter Lumpenproletariat verstehen Marx und Engels eine besondere Klassenfraktion oder eine (quer zur Klasseneinteilung liegende) soziale Gruppe, die in scharfem Kontrast zu ihrer eigenen Vorstellung revolutionärer Subjektivität steht. Eine kritische Reflexion aus heutiger Perspektive muss von den Fragen ausgehen, auf die das Konzept Lumpenproletariat antwortet. Der vorliegende Text stellt sich dieser Aufgabe. Er geht der These nach, dass es sich beim Lumpenproletariat um einen Begriff handelt, der sich an den Grenzen des Denkens von Marx und Engels (zwischen Analyse und Moral, Ökonomie und Politik, Klasse und Masse etc.) bewegt.

Absztrakt A magyar társadalomban a cigányság egy jelentős része olyannyira elszegényedett, hogy a hazai underclass szinte teljes egészében etnicizálódott. A periférián kívüli kisebbségi lét és a deprivációs spirál ellehetetleníti a többségi társadalommal való kooperáció lehetőségét, a társadalmi mobilitást. Elméletem szerint az underclassban a szegénykultúra strukturálja a mindennapokat, sok esetben ez jelöli ki az egyén pozícióját a közösségben. Ennek egyik, ha nem a legfontosabb eszköze az erőszak, az agresszió. Felértékelődik a fizikum, a küzdelemben való jártasság az underclassbeli ifjúság körében. Dolgozatomban azt állítom, hogy a szociális munkás a sportot – különösen a küzdősportot – felhasználva megteremthet egy olyan interakciós teret, ahol kialakul a bizalmi légkör, és lehetővé válik az emancipáció érdekében végzett segítő munka. Írásomban bemutatom a főbb sportszociológiai és sportpszichológiai elméleteket annak integrációs, valamint személyiségformáló hatásáról. A brazil Fight for Peace és az Újpesti Cigány Nemzetiségi Önkormányzat Tanoda Programjának metódusa, illetve eredményei alapján megvizsgálom a sportban rejlő lehetőségeket már meglévő kutatási eredményekre, illetve az általam felvett interjúkra támaszkodva.

Small bone fragments have often been interpreted as the residues of stews or grease extraction. In international historical archaeological research, stew interpretations have often focused on enslaved or underclass groups or on those who had limited access to sufficient amounts of food or faced nutritional deficiencies. These analyses have widely been uncritical, and the small fragment sizes can be better explained as the products of taphonomic processes such as weathering, trampling, and carnivore scavenging. This work presents results from experimentally chopped long bones from cows, sheep, goats, and pigs that identify butchery and fracture patterns that can be used to evaluate past stew interpretations and provide comparative models for future analyses.

Mentre la politica discute con parole sempre più vuote di soluzioni per risollevare il paese, continua ostinatamente a ignorare le persone che costituiscono la vera forza motrice dell'Italia, e che, se valorizzate con un adeguato progetto sociale di redistribuzione della ricchezza e delle opportunità, potrebbero fare la differenza. Disoccupati costretti a lavorare in nero, precari imprigionati nel limbo di contratti a termine, pensionati che stentano ad arrivare alla fine del mese, immigrati preda dello sfruttamento, giovani che non studiano e hanno abbandonato la ricerca di un lavoro stabile, rappresentano una fetta consistente della società italiana: si tratta di una maggioranza invisibile, perché ignorata da politica e sindacati, e silenziosa, perché incapace di riconoscere la sua forza elettorale. Portando alla luce problemi, tratti distintivi e potenzialità di questa maggioranza invisibile e dimenticata, il libro fa luce sulle ragioni del disagio sociale che oggi paralizza lo stivale e ricostruisce gli eventi che hanno condotto alla crisi in cui siamo impantanati, proponendoci una nuova visione progressista capace di dare voce a chi da troppo tempo manda avanti il paese senza ricevere nulla in cambio.

This dissertation is concerned with processes involved in re-imagining identity/ies, whereby the possibilities for re-imagining ourselves are opened up and explored. It will be argued that experimenting with ways to re-imagine our identities can be born from a process birthed in and from a rupture. This rupture is two-fold. It involves a destabilising of subjected notions of an underclass, gender and institutionalisation in relation to dominant culture; and simultaneously stems from a crisis of self. This process of rupturing enables a situation whereby a re-imagining can take place for a subject that is feminine, underclass and institutionalised (a concept I have defined as FUIS) This notion of rupture relates to what Deleuze and Guattari term becoming, which involves an ever-evolving process of invention and re-invention, a process that prepares the ground for the potential emergence of a people to come.

In Chapter One, I discuss the production of the artwork associated with this dissertation titled XX-Class/if/y. Symbolically it articulates how a marginalised identity might be unpacked and in turn, re-imagined. Theoretically and at a personal level, it maps one exploration of a FUIS discovering an identity that is unanticipated and arrived at through a rupture or crisis of self. This rupture is born of and situated in the middle of social relations and processes of power. Chapter One also introduces theorists whose concepts are further developed in the chapters that proceed, including Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the middle, rhizome and assemblage, Marx’s lumpenproletariat (underclass), Foucault’s concepts of power/knowledge, and Grosz’ process of a freedom from and a freedom to.
It will be suggested that it is within the very gaps that appear through the process of rupture (that is developed throughout this dissertation), that the process of negotiating identities takes place. It does so in a difficult middle ground,3 that is, within a space of convergence between many social relations and entanglements of power. This makes the process of re-imagining identity something that is equally complex and entangled...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss underclass conception and related theories and to identify the factors that explain the role of underclass, which has became one of the important problems in capitalist societies in last three decades. Thus, this paper attempts to discuss the development of underclass conception in a historical perspective. Additionally this study includes a discussion of underclass definitions and tries to (re)-connect it to poverty conception. Moreover, a discussion of underclass and related theories (exchange theory, social control theory, structural theories, and conflict theory) is employed. The next part of the paper includes a short discussion of recent debates on the subject. Lastly, a discussion on the subject of the role of underclass in a " capitalist " society is taken place on the paper. ÖZET Bu yazının amacı son 30 yıldır özellikle kapitalist toplumlarda önemli bir sorun haline gelen sınıf altı (underclass) kavramını ve ilgili kuramları kısaca tartışmak ve sınıf altı'nın kapitalist sistem içerisindeki rolünü belirleyen faktörleri tanımlamaktır. Bu nedenle bu çalışma sınıf-altı kavramını tarihsel gelişimi içinde tartışma girişiminde bulunulacaktır. Ek olarak bu çalışma sınıf-altı tanımlarını tartışarak bu kavramın yoksulluklar ilgisini (yeniden) kurmaya çalışacaktır. Bunların dışında sınıf-altı ve ilgili kuramlar (alış-veriş kuramı, toplumsal kontrol kuramı, yapısal kuramlar ve çatışma kuramı) bu çalışmada yer almaktadır. Çalışmanın son bölümlerinde sınıf-altı'nın " kapitalist " bir toplumda oynadığı rolleri araştırmaya yönelen bir tartışma yer almaktadır.

Special Issue, The Origins of the Welfare State: Global and Comparative Approaches Co-edited by Agnoletto, S. and Palmieri, C. http://zapruderworld.org/journal/archive/volume-3/overcoming-barriers-to-voluntary-servitude-positive-thinking-and-self-help-the-post-political-ideology-of-workfare/

In 1992, 13 years after Margaret Thatcher’s “neoliberal revolution,” the Iron Lady’s chief economic advisor, Alan Budd, declared that he had his doubts that “the 1980’s policies of attacking inflation by squeezing the economy and public spending” had ever really been taken seriously by those at the helm of government. Rather, he wondered if they weren’t really a “cover to bash the workers. Raising unemployment,” he pointed out, “was a very desirable way of reducing the strength of the working class. What was engineered—in Marxist terms—was a crisis of capitalism which re-created a reserve army of labor, and has allowed the capitalists to make high profits ever since.”

Arm gleich doof." Das herablassende Urteil der Privilegierten über die von sozialem Abstieg und finanzieller Not Betroffenen ist noch immer zu hören, selbst wenn die Grenzen zwischen stabiler Gesellschaftsmitte und ökonomisch prekärem Rand objektiv schon lange verschwommen sind. Seit der Sozialschmarotzer-, über die Faulheits-und Unterschichtendebatte bis hin zu den Diskussionen um die Massenunruhen in französischen und britischen "Problemvierteln" werden den ökonomisch Schlechtergestellten damit nicht nur Bildungsaspirationen, sondern auch kulturelle und politische Handlungsfähigkeit abgesprochen. Aus Sicht der Forschung zu sozialen Bewegungen und Protestmobilisierungen ist es umstritten, ob und wie sich das "Prekariat" für seine Interessen politisch mobilisiert oder überhaupt mobilisieren lässt. Der tendenziell paternalistischen Defizitsteht eine tendenziell normalisierende Differenzhypothese gegenüber. 1 Erstere geht davon aus, "gesellschaftliche Nutzlosigkeit" und desintegrative Tendenzen machen ein organisiertes politisches Auftreten unmöglich und stellen die Betroffenen vor die schlichte "Wahl zwischen Resignation und sporadischen Gewaltausbrüchen". 2 Die Differenzhypothese nimmt hingegen an, die Unterschichten, Chavs 3 und Banlieusards setzen für die Artikulation ihrer politischen Ansprüche wie alle sozialen Bewegungen Ressourcen ein, nur eben andere Ressourcen als streikende Lohnarbeiter oder unterschriftensammelnde Tierschützer; alle gemeinsam bilden sie ein "Multiversum der Erwerbsabhängigen, Erwerbslosen und Pauperisierten". 4 Während die einen in Ablehnung des "gefühlsmäßigen Radikalismus" 5 Gefahr laufen, die Stereotypen des politischen Mainstreams zu reproduzieren ("Gesindel", "mit dem Kärcher wegräumen" bei Sarkozy; "Gangster", "moralischer Verfall", "pure Kriminalität" bei Cameron), so die an-1 Vgl. Hradil, Stefan: Die Armut und die Unterschicht.

Abstract: Despite an increasing interest in minority entrepreneurship in recent years, the issue of'underclass entrepreneurship'and its linkages to'enterprise culture'remain underresearched. In this article, the authors examine'chavs' as an indigenous British underclass. Using data gathered from an Internet search and newspaper cuttings, they examine how this silent'stereotyped'and socially constructed minority is presented as dangerous and unemployable.

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet unter http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar.

Despite the fruitful of researches have been undertaken on resilience, there is less understanding of how adult internal migrants may overcome the risks and adversities they face in urban life. This study was to investigate the level of resilience among Bataknese and Minangkabaunese young adulthood men as internal migrants who live in poor neighborhood in Jakarta as well as examined their religiosity and resilience differences. For this purpose, ex post facto quantitative method was used. Demographic characteristics of education level, age, and residence status were controlled. Purposive sampling was adopted to select participants. Data collection instruments used in the quantitative study included a demographic data form, Resilience scale and Religiosity scale. The analysis of data included assessments of correlations, t-tests, and MANOVA. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in religiosity and resilience between two ethnics. Contrary to expected results, religiosity negatively correlated with resilience both among all respondents and each ethnic group. These findings and limitations of this study are discussed with reference to methodological issues and theoretical considerations toward a comprehensive interpretation of results and possibilities for further research on resilience among internal migrants in Indonesia.

Garland, C. (2014) ‘As Barriers Fall, Contingency Becomes Possibility: Protest Resisting and Escaping Containment and Categorization’, Part II Identity, Embodiment and Categorisation in Eds. Lamond, I. and Spracklen, K. 'Protests as Events: Politics, Activism and Leisure (London: Rowman & Littlefield International) Hardback ISBN/9781783480760 Paperback ISBN/978-1-78348-077-7 eBook ISBN/978-1-78348-078-4 

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781783480760

This course introduces students to some of the major thematic concerns that have traditionally shaped urban geography, with a particular emphasis on the implications of planning and development. It also allows students to engage with emerging issues that are likely to become focal points in shaping future debates among urban geographers. The aim of the course is to explore the co-constitutive relationship between planning, development, and urban space. As the planning and development of society have spatial consequences, so too does geography influence our understanding of planning and development, which becomes particularly acute within the urban sphere. These relations are negotiated and contested in multiple ways that cut across different locations, scales, and temporalities. Accordingly, we will examine urban concerns, disputes, accommodations, and consequences from a geographical perspective, where students can expect to acquire a critical appreciation for the historical trajectories and evolving implications of urban order, gentrification, housing, slums, policing and crime, city marketing, urban segregation, suburbanization, and land rent theory, all of which influence the planning and development of urban sphere.

This article argues that Malthusianism as a series of discursive regimes, developed in the Victorian-era, serves in times of austerity to reproduce an elite understanding of social exclusion in which those in a state of poverty are to blame for their own situation. It highlights that Malthusianism is present in the public discourse, becoming an underlining feature in news coverage of the so-called ‘underclass’. Our findings broadly contradict the normative claim that journalism ‘speaks truth to power’, and suggest instead that overall as a political practice, journalism tends to reproduce and reinforce hegemonic discourses of power. The piece is based on critical discourse analysis, which has been applied to a significant sample of news articles published by tabloid newspapers in Britain which focussed on the concept of the ‘underclass’. By looking at the evidence, the authors argue that the ‘underclass’ is a concept used by some journalists to cast people living in poverty as ‘unde...

This paper discusses substantive personal and practical challenges which have emerged during ongoing PhD research around food with low-income families. This research is situated within ongoing national and international concern over poor dietary habits, growing obesity rates (World Health Organisation, 2006) and relatively ineffective healthy eating campaigns (e.g., NHS five a day, 2004; Campaign for Life, 2008), particularly among those in lower socio-economic groups (Billson, Pryer & Nichols, 1999). It was anticipated that the study may not produce the neat data collection process which many of us hope for, in which participant-researcher interactions run smoothly. In particular we wish to draw attention to some implicitly held assumptions regarding participant responses which arose from the current study. In consenting to be involved in the research it was supposed that the participants would be accessible and accommodating. It became apparent that this was a naïve assumption, which can over simplify and undervalue the dynamics of the research context....