Studying rioting: Ch. 8
1. Definitions
a. One person’s riot is another’s protest: explain. (p288-91)
Whether a set of actions is defined as riot or protest depends on your point of view or ideological convictions: e.g. conservatives and radicals describe the same events ( street violence in England in 2011) in different ways. The same event can be see by one person as legitimate and described as protest, while another views it as illegitimate and describesit as riot.
b. What are the defining features of ideologies? (p300)
Ideologies are not social science theories. They are more or less coherent sets of linked ideas which:
- offer an analysis of what is: i.e. how society works, what specific problems are
- offer a prescription of how things should be: what the solutions might be to specific problems and/or big visions of how society is best ordered
- represent and articulate the interests of specific social groups or movements.
Conservatism and radicalism share these three defining features: these are similarities.
2. 18th century origins of ideology.
Tom Paine and Edmund Burke are often seen as providing founding statements of two modern political ideologies: respectively radicalism and conservatism.
Summarise their ideas.: three organising concepts for each
Paine (section 3.2 from p302) / Burke (section 3.3 from p 304)3. Contrasting the two ideologies: their views of 2011 protests/riots .
Views of modern riots / Conservatism(section 4) / Radicalism
(section 5)
Point of view (the social perspective from which the ideology views riots) / From top down; from elites/government (though with ‘populist’ versions). Any change to society should be gradual and initiated from the top. / From below; from the position of the rioters/subordinate groups (though not necessarily articulated by them). Change only comes with pressure and protest from below.
Causes of riots / Individual criminality and greed; based in lack of respect for traditional authority and values (undermined by indulgent welfare state and ‘liberal’ permissive values); problem families. / Broader social, economic, political factors: welfare cuts/poverty/unemployment; plus hyper-consumerism create economically alienated groups (they see lots of stuff which they can’t afford); resentment of policing, especially among young.
Characterisation of riots, i.e. what the ideology sees as main features of riots / Irrational thuggery and violence against property; symptoms of ‘broken society’. / Expression of economic and political alienation and disengagement.
How riots relate to social dis/order / A serious threat to social order from a dangerous minority. Violent and illegitimate behaviour. / Challenge to a specific type of social order, with some broader community support. A legitimate form of protest by oppressed groups.
Role/reaction of the media. (Might ideas of folk devils and moral panic be relevant?) / Valuable source of information; forum for discussion; a platform for authoritative voices. / Create ‘folk devils’ through distortion and simplification; add to ‘moral panic’, culminating in harsh sentencing. (Though social media may have spread alternative views.)
Solutions to the riots / Restore order; swift, exemplary punishment. In longer term restore respect for traditional values in the home, school, towards police. / Confront deep seated, structural (polit and econ) causes, e.g anti-poverty/youth unemployment initiatives, police-community relations strategies.
Evidence used to support / ‘Common sense’ grasp of events; mainstream media accounts. / Some use of social science research, e.g. LSE/JRF reports, using interviews with rioters
General comments on TMA
1. Remember to include your plan.
2. Read the week 24 online guidance on how to plan and deliver a compare/contrast essay.
3. For Q1:
- key concepts (crime, deviance, delinquency) need to be defined
- p277-78 of the textbook are crucial because these outline the similarities (compare) and differences (contrast).
- the psych and socio approaches are both social science theories so you can think about differences/similarities in the sorts of questions, claims, concepts and evidence which they use
- you’ll need to provide outlines of the two approaches but don’t get too bogged down in the details of individual studies (e.g. Eysenck for psych or Cohen for socio); if you go over all the relevant studies that’ll use up the 1500 words before you’ve done any compare and contrast.
4. For Q2:
- key concepts (riot, protest, ideology) need to be defined
- you need to outline the two ideologies (conservatism and radicalism) and their general views on riots.
- the historical element is relevant (e.g. looking at Paine and Burke or EP Thompson) but don’t take too long over this material
- answer 1b above tries to suggest similarities; answer 3 in the table highlights differences in how the two ideologies view the 2011 riots, which are a good example of how one set of events can be interpreted or “read” in very different ways.