As Britain teeters on the edge of recession, BBC Radio 4 has begun a blog designed to get your views on the so-called ‘credit crunch’ and how it is affecting people. Comments so far range much wider than house prices - the usual media focus - with listeners and bloggers offering their thoughts on the cost of living more generally. Many of them are feeling ‘the pinch’, but their comments indicate how region and social class still shape people’s standard of living. However, they also indicate that many people have been finding life difficult during the so-called ‘boom years’ of the late 1990s and early 200s. They highlight how difficult it is to define the ’standard of living’, ‘boom’, ‘bust’, or even economic ‘development’ - terms often bandied about in the media. Comments indicate that many factors: fuel bills, mortgages, credit availability, but also benefits, employment and environment all contribute to how people feel about their lives and the society of which we’re all part. In the 1950s and 1960s, the term ‘affluence’ found its way into much media reportage about British society, and glossed over some of the underlying causes of poverty that never went away: old age and unemployment being two of the most major. The Radio 4 blog is a reminder to look behind ‘credit crunch’ headlines to discover the real causes of poverty and inequality in Britain today…and suggests that asking ordinary people their opinions might prove useful. Check it out here.
Class, the ‘credit crunch’ and ‘affluence’
October 6, 2008
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Posted by selinatodd
Debate on working class goes global
October 5, 2008Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice-President in the USA Election Campaign, recently described herself as working-class. This has raised fresh debate about the definition and lifestyle of the ‘working class’. Check our list of links (blogroll, righthand column) that now include bloggers debating these issues around the world. We don’t agree with all the views expressed, but we hope you’ll find them food for thought.
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Posted by selinatodd
Classless Society Conspiracy?
September 10, 2008Polly 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.
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class | Tagged: class | 
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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
Voices of Postwar England
May 2, 2008Hello and welcome to Voices of Postwar England. This website focuses on the history of the working class in England since 1945. In particular, it showcases the life history of working-class people in Liverpool and Coventry since 1945. As it grows, we’ll include links and material of interest to people wanting to research their family history, labour history or social history. Explore the site to learn more about life in England in the 1950s and 1960s and how it compares with today.
1 Comment | Coventry, Liverpool | Tagged: class, oral history, working class | Permalink
Posted by hilaryyoung
