The Greek word for newspaper is ‘εφημερίδα’ from ‘εφήμερος’ – ephemeros, literally “lasting only one day”. It’s an exaggeration, but marginally so. The riots will soon be consigned to the ephemeral waste-paper basket. Indeed you may be suffering from Post Riot Affective Disorder Anxiety [PRADA] – a suitably consumerist acronym – and can’t abide the thought of yet more circular analysis. Nevertheless I recommend your acquaintance with the following alternative perspectives.
You won’t prevent future riots by disregarding the psychology of crowds
Classing rioters’ actions as ‘mindless mayhem’ – or relying on discredited notions about crowds – won’t aid understanding.
Look at England’s urban spaces: the riots were inevitable
Damn or fear it, the truth is that it’s an insurrection
Bankers loot the Treasury, MPs fiddle their expenses . . . and then the establishment turns on deprived young people in England’s inner cities and calls them criminals. The August disturbances weren’t riots: they were the revolt of the working class. An exaggerated, even sentimental view from John Pilger?
I heart corporate MCR
In the words of the city’s tourist board Marketing Manchester, today’s “I Love MCR” day will prove to the world how “the people of Manchester are proud of their city and united against anti-social behaviour”. But will this campaign unite our community, or paper over the social tensions driven by the dark side of the city’s regeneration
In a challenging article Richard Goulding exposes the consequences of marketing a superficial sense of collectivity. Along the way he notes that ex-CYWU member, now Leader of the Manchester Council, Sir Richard Leese, hailed the morning-after clean-up as “a real demonstration of Manchester pride”, one which sent “a powerful message to the thugs that have trashed our city.”
In closing he remarks,
For what is starkly apparent is that the ‘community interests’ served by bringing us flocking back to the city centre is not that of the community as a whole, but largely those elements who are enriched the most. And in conflating the communities of Manchester and its reputation with its retail hubs, bohemian night-life and gentrified Northern Quarter, the other side to the city – decrepit housing in Miles Platting, closed youth centres in Moss Side and morning queues outside underfunded law centres in Longsight and Crumpsall – is concealed.
The reality of Manchester is that the poverty from which many of the rioters were drawn is not that of the deprived, the socially excluded, or as some would have it the morally or mentally deficient. It is the necessary consequence of Manchester’s method of wealth creation and the brand image that furthers it. No matter how much we protest our love for our city, if the hidden tensions produced by the sale of this brand continue to be ignored then it is inevitable our attention will only be regained by the wail of sirens, the stench of fire and the sound of shattered glass.
IN DEFENCE OF YOUTH WORK 