Telling Stories about Post-war Britain: Popular Individualism and the ‘Crisis’ of the 1970s

Abstract

This article argues that, by the 1970s, people in Britain were increasingly insistent about defining and claiming their individual rights, identities and perspectives. Using individual narratives and testimonies, we show that many were expressing desires for greater personal autonomy and self-determination. We suggest that this was an important trend across the post-war decades, and of particular importance to understanding the 1970s. This popular individualism was not the result of Thatcher; if anything, it was a cause of Thatcherism. But this individualism had multiple political and cultural valences; desires for greater individual self-determination, and anger with the 'establishment' for withholding it, did not lead inexorably to Thatcherism. There were, in fact, some sources for, and potential outlets for, popular individualism on the left-outlets that explicitly challenged class, gender and racial inequalities. With this, we suggest the possibility of a new meta-narrative of post-war Britain, cutting across the political narrative that organizes post-war British history into three periods: social democracy, 'crisis' and the triumph of 'neoliberalism'. The 1970s was a key moment in the spread of a popular, aspirational form of individualism in post-war Britain, and this development is critical to our understanding of the history of the post-war years.

Class struggle and the spatial politics of violence: The picket line in 1970s Britain

“…More broadly, it could be understood as a particularly threatening expression of a perceived decline of deference in British society, where traditional sources of authority – including trade union leadership – were weakened (Sutcliffe‐Braithwaite, 2018). Rather than suggesting a growth in individualism as such forms of authority were undermined, however, the assertive picket line was an example of what Therborn has characterised as the rise of “rebellious collectivism” (2010, p. 20; see also Robinson et al., 2017). This breakdown of established order threatened violence (Hall et al., 1978/2013, pp.…”

“Whatever Community Is, This Is Not It”: Notting Hill and the Reconstruction of “Race” in Britain after 1958

“…28 the Institute of Education, University of London. 36 By the 1970s, when issues of autonomy and personal self-determination were increasingly counterposed to the centralization of resources and institutional inertia of welfare state provisions and social planning, 37 Batten's nondirective approach was embraced as standard practice among a vast number of community development workers (and, interestingly, Methodist missionaries). 38 Not surprisingly, this inheritance posed problems for the more radical community workers, many of whom looked to developments in American cities in the 1960s for social-work models seemingly untainted by colonialism.…”

Constructing standards at a time of crisis

“…12 Such work has also examined the ways in which 'ordinary' people came to express desire for greater control over their lives, and to reinterpret collective identities in terms of individual rights. 13 The creation of the NHS had recast health as a basic social right within the public imagination, and demands for professional accountability and patient rights can be seen in the work of patient organisations. 14 These agencies helped to move complaints beyond long-stay hospitals, assisting patients with individual grievances and building campaigns to reform procedures.…”