‘Urban Safaris’: Looting, Consumption and Exclusion in London 2011

Abstract

This paper examines the prevalence and relevance of looting for understanding the 2011 English riots. It begins by distinguishing these riots from previous British riots by arguing that although looting is by no means a new phenomena looting nevertheless became central to discussions, interpretations and recollections of the riots. The paper will explore public and media responses to the looting and will focus on the uses of looting as a means of identifying a feral underclass of people seen to be morally and culturally separate from mainstream society. By unpicking the relationships between looting and what currently stands for ‘consumer culture’, the paper will argue that looting is seen as the lowest common denominator of mob behaviour since its focus is deemed to be entirely apolitical. The paper will look towards current understandings of consumer culture to try to make sense of the looting. It will argue that whilst there is now a good deal of literature exploring the relationships between judgments of taste and the reproduction of existing class structures and barriers, there is virtually nothing examining the relationships between consumption and social exclusion. I will argue in this paper that exclusion is crucial in providing a comprehensive understanding of the looting. In particular, I suggest that Bourdieusian accounts of the effects of popular expressions of disgust at the looters can offer only a partial understanding of the looting, since they do not explain the strength of desire for consumer goods. In order to address this, the paper expands on cultural capital discourses by incorporating the concept of ‘emotional capital’ into the analysis. The paper concludes by arguing that we should not be surprised by the widespread looting that took place in August 2011 given that advanced consumer society is characterised by common feelings and emotions and that many of the looters were not part of the original riots but opportunists who took advantage of the lack of police presence.

Total rioting: from metaphysics to politics

“…Focusing on the state is an attempt to de-centre authority, while recognizing its legitimacy. In France, vandalism against schools and bus stops showed the extent to which education and public services matter for people who feel marginalized in a society where cultural capital is a key source of legitimacy; during the UK 2011 riots looting played a similar structural role for rioters against the backdrop of consumption as a marker of status (Casey, 2013). The looting and the vandalism expressed in these two different national contexts are paroxystic cases of ‘symbolic violence’ (Bourdieu, 2000).…”

The ‘Peaks and Troughs’ of Societal Violence: Revisiting the Actions of Turkish and Kurdish Shopkeepers during the 2011 London Riots

“…Analyses of the riots that took place in August 2011 in England have similarly focused more on push factors and less on the micro-dynamics of the events. The riots were variously described as the result of structural inequalities, austerity and the cuts (Allen et al 2013; Millington 2011), consumer culture (Bauman 2011; Casey 2013; Moxon 2011), police ‘stop and search’ policies (Dillon & Fanning 2012) and a deficit in community cohesion and participation (Dillon & Fanning 2012). The Riots Communities and Victims Panel set up by the Government, which was criticized for not considering structural issues (Bridges 2012), concluded by blaming the breakdown of families and lack of character in the young for their involvement in the riots (RCVP 2012).…”

Collisions, Coalitions and Riotous Subjects: Reflections, Repercussions and Reverberations - an Introduction

“…3.2 Several contributions (Casey 2013; Jensen 2013; Mckenzie 2013; Rogers 2013; Silvestri 2013) explicitly engage with how the 2011 riots might be positioned in respect to ‘riots’ of the past (such as the 1981 ‘race riots’); to more recent forms of unrest and ‘revolution’ witnessed in other countries (such as the ‘Arab Spring’ or Occupy movement); and as forms of ‘slow rioting’, caused by years of growing disadvantage, social alienation and dislocation. More so, the collection forces us to interrogate the function that such distinctions serve.…”

“…But I fear that people will rush to judgment, to the suggestion that this is all to do with black youths’ (Berkley 2011). Further, Casey (2013) notes that the looting and attacks on police by white youth in working-class estates in the early 1990s in places such as Oxford, Cardiff and Tyneside remain hidden and obscured from the collective memory and representation of riotous subjects. The Reading the Riots report discusses this complexity, acknowledged by many research participants who viewed the multi-ethnic composition of the rioters as reflecting a shared sense of exclusion and injustice (Lewis & Newburn 2011).…”