Fishburn Hedges

10.08.2011 | (1 comment)

A lot of the commentary around the rioting in London and other UK cities has denounced the wave of looting and disorder as random, unprovoked criminality. As the dust begins to settle, and questions are asked about how this happened, can we comfortably say that it was all without cause?

I would argue that there is a difference between a cause and a reason. There is no single-minded “cause” behind the looting, no banners – real or metaphorical – under which these acts have been carried out (aside from the initial shooting, which acted as a catalyst, at best). This has made it easy for commentators to dismiss it as random criminality, carried out by people who are, quite simply, more criminal than the rest of us.

But just because there isn’t a cause doesn’t mean that there aren’t many reasons.  Reasons that have contributed to a climate in which young people take what they can get when the opportunity arises, and do so either with their own personal justifications, or, more likely, without feeling the need for any.

Untangling what these reasons are and how we can address them will probably take some time in the aftermath of this week’s events, and it is likely that they will be different for different people. It is also important to note that reasons do not necessarily imply blame. Considering them is not to suggest that the rest of society, Government, or the media are responsible for what happened, but to acknowledge that people do not operate in a vacuum, and that there are lessons to be learnt.

Whilst it will require a much more sophisticated analysis to tease out these reasons, there are a few things that immediately come to mind:

One of the more obvious reasons that may have influenced some young people is a sense of alienation from the society around them. Low social mobility, lack of political participation and mystifying economic forces over which they can exert little influence, but are subject to (as, probably, are their parents), can all contribute to the feeling that it isn’t really their society that they are damaging, or their social norms that they are transgressing. They have got nothing to lose. 

It doesn’t feel like a good time to be a young person in the UK. It’s arguable whether or not this is true in real terms, but it is easy to see how the sense of not having a future may have been compounded by the media narrative around the recession, cuts to services, job losses, rising tuition fees, unaffordable housing etc. In fact, when it comes to employment, many young people who do not plan to go to university are seeing that even their counterparts with degrees are struggling to find jobs, and are taking up the lower-skilled jobs for which they are overqualified.

These are young people that have grown up in a world of hyper-consumerism. We live in a society that tells them they should own everything, but in which they can afford very little – creating a desire than cannot be realistically met. Is it surprising then that we are seeing kids stealing flat screen TV’s when they get the chance?

Finally, one of the main reasons (and this may have developed as events unfolded) could be that people listened. This is not a social group that feels very often listened to, not least of all because they are young. By causing such unprecedented disruption that football fixtures were cancelled, news channels dominated and politician’s holidays cut short, they got an unprecedented amount of reaction and response that must have been thrilling, at least.

Of course, considering the reasons behind recent events does not mean condoning criminal activity. The ways that young people in London, Manchester, Liverpool and elsewhere have behaved are unacceptable and those who broke the law should be held accountable.

However, writing it off as random acts of violence is perhaps not just a convenient way of avoiding deeper issues, but could also be more damaging in the long run. If we don’t understand the reasons behind what happened, we will be no closer to preventing it in future. And if we don’t acknowledge any genuine grievances, it will only reinforce them, and compound the Gramscian idea that the dominant class in society, which speaks through the media, runs the businesses on the high street and debates from the benches of the Commons simply isn’t listening, and needs to be told again.

Posted by Amy Wilson

on 14.08.2011

Gwyn Burr :-
I love your piece Amy. I agree that we need to take a proper look at the root causes. I think the role of family life is an interesting additional factor. So many of the people interviewed demonstrated a worrying lack of responsibility as parents. Do many of those at the younger end of the age range have any role models teaching them right and wrong. Can our education system replace these basic parenting functions?