he idea that Britain is 'The underclass debate is largely a de- witnessing the rise of an T 'underclass' of people at bate about , even if some writers the bottom of the social heap, structurally separate and culturally are less than explicit that their prime distinct from the 'decent' working- subjects (or suspects) are young people.9 class, has become increasingly popular over the past ten years. Some on the right claim to see the industrialisation has excluded a disorderly underclass. Similarly, emergence of a new dangerous significant minority who now the policies developed by recent class made up of dysfunctional seem permanently surplus to Conservative governments to families who infect Britain's poor economic requirements tackle the underclass problem outer estates and inner-cities with (Dahrendorf 1987). Others-such (which seem set to continue under quasi-criminal, anti-social, anti- as Bagguley and Mann (1992) - are the New Labour administration) work of welfare more sceptical, seeing underclass have been ones targeted at young dependency. According to Charles theory as the latest in a long people. These are numerous but Murray (1994) this 'new rabble' tradition of bourgeois 'respectable include, for instance, the now threatens the happy stability fears' and 'moral panics' about promotion of workfare and 's poor and dispossessed: 'citizenship' strategies to manage for them, these are just ideologies and control unemployed under- of the powerful peddled to mystify 25s, and punitive policies towards the real causes and problems of young offenders and authoritarian . restrictions on young people's A new youth cultures and social lives (such as Underclass terminology is difficult to avoid. For government night-time curfews and the ministers, for documentary makers outlawing of activities associated and feature writers of the press - with the rave/ dance ). underclass? as well as for academics of In summary, the underclass different disciplines and political debate is largely a debate about persuasions - the underclass idea youth, even if some writers are less Robert MacDonald urges socio- can describe and explain much than explicit that their prime about the supposedly parlous subjects (or suspects) are young logists of youth culture to engage moral health of fin-de-siecle people. society. And whereas in the US appropriately with the debate. the 'underclass' has become a racial code-word, a sub-text to The screaming of wider society. much British underclass silence Underclass theorists of the commentary concerns the alleged What have youth researchers had liberal-left tend to be more reticent degeneracy of the nation's youth. to say about these controversial but about its cultural content but A host of social pathologies and remarkably persistent, popular and accept the likelihood of some sort problems - ranging from drug influential ideas? The answer - of underclass coming into abuse and drunkenness to the despite youth sociology being existence given prevailing social breakdown of family and perfectly placed to comment - is, structural conditions. De- community values - have all been sadly, rather little. One or two theorised in terms of this young writers have found the underclass underclass. idea useful and one or two have Echoing similar views from argued it to be useless. Accounts the Victorian period, the key of the way that youth have suffered figures in the landscape of modern, the consequences of conservative accounts of the and unjust underclass are the irresponsible, government policy have not been welfare-draining, housing-queue few in number and yet there has jumping, young single mother and been, what Steve Craine (1997) the feckless, work-shy, criminal, calls, a 'screaming silence' in the young man. Murray does not place of a critical but open conceal his view of young men as engagement with the idea that 'essentially barbarians'. And in the long-term economic exclusion rise of crime, unemployment and maybe generating underclass-like illegitimacy in Britain in the 1980s sub-cultures amongst the young. and '90s we can see, according to Westergaard observes that Mr Murray, the growth of a new although underclass theory may be underclass in which young people shown to be a 'powerful myth play a central role. which social science has a responsibility to explode' it may In more structural accounts also suggest new paradigms of there is also emphasis upon the productive insight, which social youthfulness of the protagonists. science has a responsibility to Dahrendorf implies that it is the explore' (1992: 58 1). The young who must be inculcated into chequered history and dubious the work ethic and extended social political pedigree of underclass citizenship if they are not to be ideas do not disallow the fact that sucked into a dangerous,

CJm no. 28 Summer 1997 they may describe - partially - constructed from censuses or other pressing social developments partial records (which are likely to inadequately explained by the omit or generate non-response theories of the right. from 'underclass' members), and/ The same Taking youth crime as an or has been undertaken in places example, as Jock Young has and with groups where it would pointed out, there is still a chronic always be unlikely to uncover a tendency towards partiality with youth underclass. critics of underclass theory This is not to say that there is old genera- offering up images of youthful a youth underclass, let alone to wrongdoers as the victims of suggest that Murray is right in his economic circumstance or 'moral conceptualisation of it but, rather, panics' as a counterpoint to right- that it is not as simple to dispense wing imagery of young men as empirically with these ideas as tion game? villains and barbarians. Neither most would like to hope. picture tells the whole story, of If we are to properly engage course, but the recent failure of with Murray's thesis what is youth researchers to offer needed are studies which are able Phil Cohen examines contrasting convincing alternative to explore, in depth and over time, explorations of young people, the the values, activities and outlooks notions of potency and powerless- worlds they occupy in the late of people in places and during 1990s and their involvement (or periods where underclass ness within youth culture otherwise) in the sorts of culture phenomena are most likely to show ith New Labour, New taken to be indicative of the rise themselves. Only ethnographic, Britain, we have truly of a new underclass has been partly longitudinal studies of particular Wentered the age of post responsible for the currency localities, down to neighbourhood modern politics. We have finally enjoyed by underclass theses. level, and key social groups arrived at a politics in which resident in them, are likely to modernity itself has become a Researching youth provide the sort of evidence designer label for marketing a necessary to support or reject brand of thinking that has no and the 'underclass' underclass theories (and to develop content other than the in the future persuasive alternative theories of announcement of its own arrival. I have recently edited a collection ). Through this Ironically, the linking of 'the new' of papers by youth researchers who sort of approach to debates about with the project of 'rejuvenating' are committed to critical the underclass and social exclusion state and civil society is nothing engagement with underclass ideas we might also see a welcome new. Disraeli's Young England and which attempt to progress return to an invigorated sociology movement had much the same these sociological debates about of youth culture in the late 1990s. rhetorical intent, even if the scope youth exclusion (MacDonald, of its appeal was somewhat more 1997). The volume analyses the restricted. restructuring of the labour market, To equate the 'coming to housing, welfare, social care, Robert MacDonald is senior power' of a political party with the criminal justice, and education and lecturer in Sociology at the 'coming of age' of a new training institutions which took University ofTeeside. generation is a powerful place during the 1980s and '90s ideological device; it enables and the consequences of these References troublesome divisions of class, gender, and 'race* to be dissolved changes for disadvantaged groups Bagguley, F. and Mann, K. (1992) 'Idle Thieving Bastards? Scholarly away in a single all embracing of young men and women. The Representations of the gesture of inclusion. And, after contributors document how paths Underclass', in Work, Employment all, who would want to be of transition have become riskier and Society, 6, 1,113-26. identified with archaic institutions for young people and more prone Craine, S. (1997) 'The Black run by senile placemen, in a world to lead to unemployment, Magic Roundabout: Cyclical that capitalism has made safe for , involvement in transitions, social exclusion and the 'permanent revolution' of crime and serious social exclusion. alternative careers', in technologies and commodities in In general, though, most MacDonald, R. op cit its global market place? contributors question the value of Dahrendorf, R. (1987) The underclass perspectives. Underclass and the Future of Eternal youth Britain, 10th Annual Lecture, St. The book also contains, George's House: Windsor. The idea that youth is a unitary, however, an important caveat to its MacDonald, R (ed) (1997, and hence unifying category has a extensive conceptual and empirical forthcoming) Youth, the history as long as that of critique of youth underclass ' Underclass' and Social Exclusion, modernity, and the two are closely theory: whilst evidence supporting London: Routledge. linked. The invention of underclass theories may well be Murray, C. (1994) Underclass: the adolescence as a distinctive stage slim, evidence offered up against Crisis Deepens, London: Institute them is also often not suitable to for Economic Affairs. "The Blairite mantra of "education, edu- the task. Much of the research - Westergaard, J. (1992) 'About and from youth studies and elsewhere Beyond the Underclass: some cation, education" will only work if it - which claims to dismiss notes on influences of social underclass thinking is now out- climate on British Sociology', in connects credible narratives of aspiration dated, or based upon questionnaire Sociology, 25: 575-87. to the underlying contradictions of the survey techniques with samples youth question."

Cjm no. 28 Summer 1997 of the life cycle was part of the trapped in forms of work and Potency and same discourse that challenged the community associated with their 'dead hand of tradition' braking the domestic role in the home, and poweriessness 'engines of progress'. As a result apprenticed to early marriage. The contradiction between young people have had to carry a For the middle classes, in symbolic potency and real peculiar burden of representation; contrast, studenthood provided a poweriessness - which I have everything they do, say, think, or temporary moratorium from the suggested lies at the heart of the feel, is scrutinised by an army of pressures of earning a living and youth question - is found in an professional commentators for 'growing up'. Indeed it licensed a especially intense form within signs of the times. Over the last period of 'careering about' which black youth cultures. The century the 'condition of youth despite its apparent frivolity immense influence of African question' has assumed increasing prepared them for the kind of self American vernaculars in the importance as being symptomatic possessed individualism needed evolution of popular music, in of the health of the nation or the for the successful pursuit of a street fashions and in styles of future of the race, the welfare of career. One of the ways of looking body language is an everyday fact the family, or the state of at 'classic' working class youth of contemporary youth culture. civilisation as-we-know-it. culture and its 'resistance through But it has fed off and reinforced So youth has been invested ritual1 is to see it as a largely processes of racial exclusion to with enormous symbolic power, frustrated attempt to improvise a ensure that only a small minority but this potency has been largely version of the adolescent of black youth succeed in making confined to the more visible moratorium under conditions enough capital out of their own kinds of mobile individualism aspects of youthfulness to do with which did not allow for it. identity work to become part of the demanded by the new career the adolescent body, and its success story of the enterprise culture, who are no less stranded, emergent sexuality. In the post war New identities culture. Significant numbers of and whose sense of frustration period this 'body politics" has been Asian youth, now equipped with leads to less visible, if more self Today, of course, this picture has wrapped up in a carapace of their own distinctive diasporic destructive patterns of response. become much more complicated. consumerism. The cultural identities have found it easier to Adopting a moralistic stance Working class boys and girls are industries have combined to move onwards and upwards, towards this phenomenon does much less likely to grow up feeling manufacture youth as a set of life especially through routes into nothing to help understand or that they have an occupational styles or looks' that can be bought higher education and the culture of tackle it. Sweeping condemnations destiny 'in their bones'; their and sold as easily as the clothes, studenthood. of 'yob culture' and 'lawless prides of place are more likely to records and the other masculinities' may chime well be anchored to imagined kinships Turning 'exotic' forms of accoutrements that define with punitive strategies of zero and communities entirely marginality into marketable life 'teenagery' . Because these tolerance policing and disconnected from divisions of styles is all grist to the mill of fashions contain a built in principle criminalisation. The rhetoric may labour in family or workplace. today's multicultural capitalism; of obsolescence, and can be go down well with Middle Transitions from school are now trading off cultural cross overs, perpetually recycled, youth is very England. But these interventions decisively routed through further fusions, ethnic diversities and good for business. In 'old' are as useless as the sentimental education and vocational training, hybridities of every kind is where , dominated by the Great victimologies they are designed to not through informal inter- the action is and where the profits Fear of ageing, the search for replace when it comes to dealing generational cultures of are to be made. But this does little 'eternal youth' has produced an the underlying issues. The Blairite apprenticeship and inheritance. for the self esteem of young people apparently unquenchable desire to locked into structural mantra of "education, education, 'keep up with new times' amongst This does not mean that this unemployment, the casual labour education" will only work if it all age groups. In order to stake whole template of identity market and the hidden economy of connects credible narratives of out their privileged claim on disappears. Matrilocalism and drugs and petty crime. aspiration to the underlying 'youth', young people have thus male territorial ism continue to rule contradictions of the youth continually to improvise new ways OK on many council estates the question. That means taking of asserting their difference, from length and breadth of Extended concrete political and economic their elders, as well as their peers; deindustrialized Britain; but these adolescence measures to enfranchise those forms are no longer functional in this in turn both deconstructs youth The enlargement of adolescence, groups of young people who are as a unitary category and fuels the the sense of equipping young most marginalised so they are less people with the identities they need its encroachment on childhood, recycling of youth culture process and prolongation into what used to dependent on the kinds of to make the transition into regimes symbolic potency our society of work. This could be put more be adulthood is thus both culturally driven and required by the offers them as a consolation prize, Marginal youth strongly. The culture of and which they in turn have no masculinity and femininity economic collapse of earlier At the same time, in the economic strategies of generational option but to exploit. Only if that and political spheres, youth has associated with manual labourism peculiar burden of representation continues to be reproduced within replacement for all but the most remained a prime site of privileged. For the disadvantaged, is lifted from their shoulders, will marginality and poweriessness. many working class families but they be free to grow up, and in turn actively disqualifies these young chronic prematurity in the realm of Until very recently, most sexual 'body politics' has gone do their bit to help lessen the apprenticeships into workplace people from taking up the tyranny of , that same old opportunities opened up by the along with the retardation of skills culture meant being confined to required to stake out claims to generation game in which various kinds of skivvying, advent of new information everyone loses out. ^^ technologies and service industries public amenity and resource in fetching and carrying jobs, and a wider and more civic terms. The youth wage that ensured you had in the post-Fordist economy. As a result they become locked into a figure of the skinhead, dressed in to go on living at home. This was dungarees and bald as a new born a despised, quasi feminine, position of chronic dependence on Phil Cohen is reader in Cultural their own cultural resources, baby, frozen in an aggressive Studies at the University of East position from which boys hoped to macho stance, defending an escape into fully fledged forced to make a living in the London, where he directs the secondary labour market at the obsolete white proletarian Centre for New Ethnicities masculinity, either through entry ethnicity is perhaps the most into skilled manual trades and the same time as they achieve both Research. His latest book is pariah and celebrity status in the spectacular case in point. But there 'Rethinking the Youth Question prerogatives of a 'family wage' or are many more young people via the rivalrous fraternities of mass media for their ability to go Education, Labour and Cultural on living spectacularly at the unable, through no fault of their Studies', published by Macmillan street gang and pub culture; girls own, to make the transition to the meanwhile remained largely margins. in April.

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