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Researching the Riots This is a repository copy of Researching the riots. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/98861/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Phillips, R. orcid.org/0000-0003-4630-4555, Frost, D. and Singleton, A. (2013) Researching the riots. Geographical Journal, 179 (1). pp. 3-10. ISSN 0016-7398 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2012.00463.x Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Geographical Journal Researching the Riots ForJournal: The Peer Geographical Journal Review Manuscript ID: GJ-Com-Nov-2011-0093.R1 Manuscript T pe: Commentar Ke words: Riots, Research, England, Cities, Children, )oung People This commentar sets out an agenda for researching the riots that swept through English cities in 2011, and for e.ploring the ,roader issues raised , these events. Drawing inspiration from ground- ,rea/ing social and cultural geographies of the 1901 riots, and also from mappings and 1uantitative studies of the more recent A,stract: distur,ances, this paper sets out a framewor/ for researching the riots, and underlines the importance of doing so. It concludes that while riots are traumatic e.periences for man , the can also ,e opportunities, which effective research can help to realise, recasting these events as catal sts for change. Page 1 of 20 Geographical Journal 1 2 3 RESEARCHING THE RIOTS 4 5 6 By Richard Phillips, Diane Frost and Alex Singleton 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Introduction 14 15 16 There has been much speculation about the causes and meanings of the riots that swept through 17 18 English cities in August 2011 but, as yet, little sustained research. In this commentary, we propose an 19 20 For Peer Review 21 agenda for researching these events, focussing upon geographical perspectives. We begin by 22 23 drawing out some lessons from researching an earlier wave of riots, which took place almost 24 25 precisely 30 years earlier, in many of the same cities including London, Birmingham, Manchester and 26 27 Liverpool. These efforts include public enquires, appointed by national and local governments, and 28 29 30 also smaller scale independent studies such as an archival and oral history of the riots in Liverpool: 31 32 Liverpool ’81: Remembering the Riots, by Diane Frost and Richard Phillips. Though Frost and Phillips 33 34 concentrated on qualitative data – newspaper cuttings, archives and interviews – geographical 35 36 37 research on this subject can also be pursued through numerical data, as the other author of this 38 39 paper – Alex Singleton – demonstrated in his spatial analysis of the 2011 riots, which he published 40 41 online and in the national media. Developing and explaining Frost and Phillips’ archival and 42 43 44 qualitative research, and Singleton’s spatial analysis, this commentary discusses and draws together 45 46 historical and contemporary, qualitative and quantitative precedents, to propose an agenda for 47 48 researching the riots of 2011. 49 50 51 We take as our point of departure the absence of any systematic approach to the problem of 52 53 54 researching the 2011 riots. These disturbances began on August 6 following the police shooting of 55 56 Mark Duggan, a black resident of Tottenham, North London. Over the following days, they spread 57 58 within London and to other English cities. The riots took different forms in different places, but 59 60 increasingly turned from anti -police demonstrations into violent unrest involving looting and Geographical Journal Page 2 of 20 1 2 3 vandalism. The UK Government has refused to launch a public enquiry into these events, stating 4 5 6 simply that it would conduct a policy review, while Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced a 7 8 survey of victims’ accounts and views, which presented interim findings in November 2011, in 9 10 advance of a final analysis promised by March 2012 (Curtis 2011). These surveys do not compare 11 12 13 with the systematic bipartisan studies undertaken in the wake of some earlier riots, such as the 14 15 Scarman and Gifford enquiries in the 1980s (Gifford, Brown and Bundy 1989; Scarman 1981). The 16 17 first of these was launched in the aftermath of the Brixton riots of 10-12 April 1981, in which petrol 18 19 bombs were thrown for the first time in mainland Britain, and its remit was widened to consider the 20 For Peer Review 21 22 disturbances in other English cities that took place in July of the same year (CARF 1981, 230-1). The 23 24 Gifford Enquiry, headed by Lord Gifford, Wally Brown and Ruth Bundy, was commissioned by 25 26 Liverpool City Council to investigate race relations in the City, in the wake of the 1981 riots. In the 27 28 29 absence of such detailed and public enquiries, it is particularly important for independent and 30 31 academic researchers to investigate the riots of 2011. Inevitably, a number of projects have already 32 33 been initiated. Among the highest profile of these is a survey launched by the LSE and Guardian 34 35 36 newspaper with support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Led by Professor Tim Newburn, 37 38 entitled Reading the Riots, this included interviews with residents, police and the judiciary, in 39 40 addition to an analysis of riot-related internet traffic (Lewis 2011; 41 42 http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/news/archives/2011/09/riots.aspx ). Findings of the project, 43 44 45 which the newspaper portrayed as objective and authoritative, were printed the Guardian in a series 46 47 of articles, printed in December 2011. 48 49 50 51 52 53 Imagined Geographies 54 55 56 57 During and immediately after the 2011 riots, commentators – including government ministers, 58 59 newspaper editors, journalists and bloggers – weighed in with descriptions and interpretations of 60 what had taken place. Their interventions were typically speculative and in many cases geographical, Page 3 of 20 Geographical Journal 1 2 3 explaining the riots with reference to the areas in which they had taken place: English cities. Prime 4 5 6 Minister David Cameron diagnosed a ‘broken’ and ‘sick’ society, undermined by the breakdown of 7 8 two-parent families and the rise of gang culture (Gilligan 2011). Former London Mayor Ken 9 10 Livingstone pointed instead to public spending cuts and rising deprivation. Others focussed on 11 12 13 children and young people. Kit Malthouse, the Conservative Deputy Mayor of London with 14 15 responsibility for policing, blamed the riots on ‘feral youth’ (Sparrow 2011). Former Prime Minister 16 17 Tony Blair pointed to the minority of socially excluded children and young people whom he said 18 19 were hostile to mainstream values. Freed from the constraints of public office, others employed 20 For Peer Review 21 22 more colourful language to explain the riots, blaming gangs, ‘chavs’ and – in a bizarre intervention 23 24 by sixteenth century historian David Starkey – the influence of black ‘gangster culture’ on white 25 26 youths. Speculative references were also made to ‘casino capitalism’, fat-cat bankers, greedy and 27 28 29 corrupt politicians, and even the ‘cult of celebrity’. 30 31 32 It is tempting simply to dismiss all this speculation about contemporary British society and to call for 33 34 research that can debunk the stereotypes and myths that spring from this imaginative and 35 36 undisciplined set of interventions. Indeed, we go on in the next sections to do precisely this. First, 37 38 39 though, it is also insightful to interrogate these assertions and the cultural logic they mobilise. It is 40 41 possible to take cues, here, from pioneering geographical research on the 1981 riots. Jacqueline 42 43 Burgess examined the ways in which media commentators had addressed the particularly severe 44 45 46 disturbances that took place in Liverpool. She showed that, while preliminary attempts to describe 47 48 and explain riots are often inaccurate, they are also revealing, as mythical or imagined geographies. 49 50 Burgess examined the tropes and conventions in factual reporting, features, editorials, photographs 51 52 53 and cartoons. She found a lot of colourful but highly conventional rhetoric, which screamed out, 54 55 often in block capitals and through metaphors of war: ‘RIOT TORN, RIOT RAVAGED, THE BATTLE OF 56 57 BRIXTON, BLOODY SATURDAY, WAR ON THE STREETS’ (Burgess 1985). Much of what she found 58 59 anticipated coverage that would follow the 2011 riots, with its emphasis on children and young 60 people in anarchic cities: Geographical Journal Page 4 of 20 1 2 3 The inner cities were being BLITZED by ‘mobs’ of young people. Extracting maximum drama 4 5 6 from what were already dramatic events, headlines and texts carried extreme emotional 7 8 tones. Some were blatant, others evoked drama more subtly.
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