Moving Histories of Class and Community Identity, Place and Belonging in Contemporary England

by Rogaly, Ben; Taylor, Becky

• ISBN13: 9780230219939
• ISBN10: 0230219934
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

White working class areas are often seen as entrenched and immobile, threatened by the arrival of 'outsiders'. This major new study of class and place since 1930 challenges accepted wisdom, demonstrating how emigration as well as shorter distance moves out of such areas can be as suffused with emotion as moving into them. Both influence people's sense of belonging to the place they live in. Using oral histories from residents of three social housing estates in Norwich, England, the book also tells stories of the appropriation of and resistance to state discourses of community; and of ambivalent, complex and shifting class relations and identities. Material poverty has been a constant in the area, but not for all residents, and being defined as 'poor' is an identity that some actively resist.

Author Biography

BEN ROGALY teaches in the Department of Geography at the University of Sussex, UK. He is active in both the Sussex Centre for Migration Research and the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research.
 
BECKY TAYLOR is Lecturer in History at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, and Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at the University of Sussex, UK. She is author of A Minority and the State: Travellers in Britain in the Twentieth Century. 

Table of Contents

"This book challenges contemporary stereotypes about the identity of the white working class in England . . . Rogaly and Taylor question the customary opposition between immigrants and rooted local populations, demonstrating the mobility of 'local people' and the constantly changing identity of 'the community' over time . . . This is a fascinating and important study." - Robert J. C. Young, Julius Silver Professor of English and Comparative Literature, New York University, USA

"If you want to know how class 'feels' this book offers a nuanced understanding…Written with clarity by a geographer and an historian it charts lives stretched out over time and space . . . This is a unique and important contribution to the recently revitalised area of class analysis." - Professor Beverley Skeggs, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK

"Drawing upon personal testimony, archival evidence and participant observation, this intimate account of a working class housing estate…approach[es] the emotionality and significance of the residents’ own 'moving' stories with great insight and sensitivity." - Professor Alistair Thomson, Monash University, Australia

"Rogaly and Taylor make clear in this book not only how, but especially where, class is lived. Moving Histories is a vital addition to the burgeoning New Working Class Studies movement." - Don Mitchell, Distinguished Professor of Geography, Syracuse University, USA

 

"Readers are treated to a unique view not only of how the vagaries of national and local policy shifts affected this community, but also, and perhaps more importantly, how this community shaped, amended, adapted, and reshaped their built and political environment to reflect their own needs, wants, and values. Foremost among this book's attributes is the authors' attempt to closely analyze the most common perceptions and misperceptions of life on a mostly white, mostly working-class council estate. Rather than accept the media representation of pervasive violence, racism, and dependency, this book successfully 'unfixes' the essentializing categories of class, gender, race, and poverty to reveal the complexity of people's lives, the situational nature of identity, and the ambivalences of daily life. Summing Up: Highly recommended." --CHOICE