Polly Toynbee contributes to the contemporary debate in her Guardian column about whether we are living in a classless society or not. Despite assertions that we are living in a classless society Toynbee argues that class is still used by both the left and the right to gain political clout. By denying the continued significance of class, Toynbee suggests we are denying people’s ability to identify themselves as working class.
Classless Society Conspiracy?
September 10, 2008
No Comments » | 
class | Tagged: class | 
Permalink
Posted by voicesofpostwarengland
Class in Modern Britain Symposium, Manchester, 10th and 11th July 2008
July 8, 2008
The symposium is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Economic History Society. The aim is to provide a forum for the discussion of different meanings of class (for academic practitioners, for politicians, the public…) and to interrogate differences between these meanings and how we can fit them together. We hope the symposium will bring academics, politicians, campaigners and journalists together to heighten the profile of class as a political issue.
The programme for the event includes the following sessions:
Identities
Chair: Selina Todd (Manchester)
1. Mike Savage (Manchester), ‘Class identities and social change in Britain, 1938-2004’
2. Jon Lawrence (Cambridge), ‘The British Case of Class’
3. Sean O’Connell (Belfast), ‘The gunman, Al Capone, and the lion tamer: class, masculinity and memory in Belfast’s dockland communities’
Spaces
1. Jim Smyth (Stirling), ‘Housing, Inequality and Mortality: a comparison of two streets in Glasgow, c. 1860-1911.’
2. Doug Robertson (Stirling), ‘“Whaur are you Fae”. Neighbourhood identity in Stirling, over time and place’
3. Lynsey Hanley (Lancaster), ‘The Wall in the Head’
Politics Chair: Pat Ayers (Manchester)
1. Andy Wood (East Anglia) ‘Customary law, local memory and the possibilities for popular solidarity in early modern England.’
2. Annmarie Hughes (Glasgow), ‘Women’s “splendid support”? Uncovering working-class women’s contribution to the 1926 General Strike and the Miners’ Lockout in Scotland.’
3. Steven Fielding (Nottingham), ‘The Political Parties and Class’
Education and youth
Chair: Andrew Davies (Liverpool)
1. Leslie Holmes (Salford), ‘Jobs for the Boys: the development of a club for working lads in Salford’
2. Diane Reay (Cambridge), ‘Psycho-social aspects of white middle-class identities: Desiring and defending against the class and ethnic “other” in urban multiethnic schooling’
3. Melissa Benn (London), The unspoken clash of class cultures: new features of the educational landscape’
Culture
Chair: Selina Todd (Manchester)
1. Hilary Young (Manchester), ‘Voices of Postwar England: an academic and community blog’
2. Gillian Evans (Manchester), ‘Contemporary Cultural Politics and the White Working Classes in Britain’
3. Sarfraz Manzoor (London), TBA
Thanks to the ESRC and the Economic History Society for generously funding this event
1 Comment | 
class | Tagged: Add new tag, class, culture, education, identities, politics, space, Youth | 
Permalink
Posted by voicesofpostwarengland
