Riots and Reactions: Hypocrisy and Disaffiliation?

Nicki Hedge, Alison MacKenzie

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The August 2011 riots in England occasioned widespread condemnation from government and the media. Here, we apply the concepts of hypocrisy and affiliation to explore reactions to these riots. Initially acknowledging that politics necessitates a degree of hypocrisy, we note that some forms of hypocrisy are indefensible: they compromise injavascript:void(0);tegrity. With rioters condemned as thugs and members of a feral underclass, some reactions exemplified forms of corrosive hypocrisy that deflected attention away from economic, social and cultural problems. Moreover, such reactions omitted to attend to the concept of [dis]affiliation amongst young rioters. Accordingly, we look to the role that education might play in re-affiliating those who do not feel they belong to, or have a sufficient stake in, society. Whilst our focus is on the riots in England, the exploration of hypocrisy and affiliation, and discussion of education for re-affiliation, transcends that national context.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)329-346
    JournalJournal of Philosophy of Education
    Volume49
    Issue number3
    Early online date25 Mar 2015
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Aug 2015

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