Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain

by Lisa Mckenzie

Overview

While the 1% rule, poor neighbourhoods have become the subject of public concern and media scorn, blamed for society's ills. This unique book redresses the balance. Lisa Mckenzie lived on the St Ann’s estate in Nottingham for more than 20 years. Her ‘insider’ status enables us to hear the stories of its residents, often wary of outsiders. St Ann's has been stigmatised as a place where gangs, guns, drugs, single mothers and those unwilling or unable to make something of their lives reside. Yet in this same community we find strong, resourceful, ambitious people who are 'getting by', often with humour and despite facing brutal austerity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447311294
Publisher:	Policy Press
Publication date:	01/14/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Lisa Mckenzie is a research fellow in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, working on issues of social inequality and class stratification through ethnographic research. Lisa brings an unusual and innovative approach to research by means of her extensive experience of bringing the academic world and local community together.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Danny Dorling; Introduction; Being and belonging: the importance of narrative; ‘Being St Ann's’: an alternative value system; ‘Passing by’: family and community; ‘A little bit of sugar’: a discussion of taste; ‘The roof is on fire’: despair, fear and civil unrest; ‘On Road, don’t watch’; Conclusion; Afterword by Owen Jones

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The book excels in bringing to life the realities of life lived in hard circumstances and the ways in which people respond to troubling experiences and harsh lie conditions." Journal of Social Policy

"Who am I to pass comment on this book? But that's the trick they play on you isn't it. We are all used, processed, slashed, but the under class, the worker, well they are thoroughly abused." Jason Williamson, Sleaford Mods

"A book that pulls no punches about its politics and commitment to challenging the anti-working class hatreds that are so prevalent in the UK today." Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

“A heart-wrenching, eminently readable, powerful book. This is class analysis at its most visceral and sensitive, uncovering incredibly resourceful survival strategies for staying human in conditions of incredible inhumanity." Bev Skeggs, Goldsmiths, University of London

"Getting By is a moving portrait of stigma and inequality which illuminates how the people of St Ann's navigate through the architecture, institutions and prestige systems of estate life, and shows, powerfully, why we must put value at the centre of class analysis." Dr Tracey Jensen, University of East London

Editorial Reviews

"This book challenges social scientists to think again about how working-class life on urban estates is portrayed, both academically and in the mainstream media." Social Policy & Administration

"[McKenzie] leads the reader to examine their own understanding of the working class by challenging the stigma attached to this identity and by representing this silenced community in modern Britain." BSA Network

"Lisa McKenzie did not try to paint an idyllic view of the council estate with its ethnic tensions across families that settled many generations ago. However her ethnography, which describes a mixed race community facing racism and endogamy from the middle classes, balances the narrow minded view that often associates lower classes with racism." [trans] lectures.revues.org

"The stories within this book lay bare what it means to be regarded as inferior and an outcast in your own society. This is a resolutely impressive book written with authenticity and passion." Mary O'Hara, journalist and author of Austerity Bites

"McKenzie has managed to transform several academic pieces of work into a accessible book full of humanity and honesty about St Ann's and some of the people who live there." The Spokesman

"A very fine ethnography of life in austerity Britain, charting the resilience and creativity of the community it describes, as well as their injuries and mistreatment by others." John Holmwood, Professor of Sociology, University of Nottingham

"As a child of St Ann’s and son of Jamaican immigrants, this is one of the most powerful celebrations of working-class and multi-cultural Britain I have ever read. I challenge you to read this book and not be ignited by a range of emotions such as sadness, anger, pleasure and joy. Read and enjoy. I did." Donald Mclean, Vice-Principal, Longley Park Sixth Form College

"A vivid, passionate account of class, gender and race in a stigmatised and poor working-class community, and a powerful defence of its people. Essential reading for 21st century Britain." Andrew Sayer, Professor of Social Theory and Political Economy, Lancaster Universityand author of Why we can't afford the rich

“Getting By is an essential antidote to media and governmental depictions of poverty in the UK today. McKenzie transports the reader into realities, rather than the stigmatised hype, of council estate life. This accessible and moving account of how people ‘get by’ in conditions of heightened poverty and inequality draws throughout on the powerful voices of working class people themselves.” Imogen Tyler, Lancaster University& author of Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain

"This is one small example of a working class estate. But it tells the story of ordinary people as they see themselves, and in a corporate-dominated world that's worth something." Education for Tomorrow

From the Publisher

Enticing and inspiring in its authentic, emotionally charged honesty. . . . Getting By aims to challenge the stereotypes and ‘happy with their lot’ myths that patronize the complexity of human experience and emotion. An insider as well as a scholar, Mckenzie confronts the simplistic, judgmental ways that council estates and those in them are so often presented, via the stories of people who don’t merely survive, but who are resourceful, resilient, and brave. . . . Mckenzie writes without a shred of sentimentality, but with a conviction and passion that never allow us to be emotionless spectators. She hits out at the stigmas—gangs, drugs, guns, single mothers—applied by those on the ‘outside’ to communities such as this. The narratives are not only recounted with humor, love, and care but are also grounded in social and cultural context. She exposes the contradictions and complexities lived by the people of St Ann’s, and shows them trying to make sense of them from their place in a society built on inequality of opportunity and choice. . . . Her voice and those she presents here need to be brought to other silenced communities, to inspire their inhabitants to tell their own stories and put voices of resistance into the public domain.

Times Higher Education - Vicky Duckworth

Who am I to pass comment on this book? But that’s the trick they play on you isn’t it. We are all used, processed, slashed, but the under class, the worker, well they are thoroughly abused.

Jason Williamson

As a child of St Ann’s and son of Jamaican immigrants, this is one of the most powerful celebrations of working-class and multicultural Britain I have ever read. I challenge you to read this book and not be ignited by a range of emotions such as sadness, anger, pleasure and joy. Read and enjoy. I did.

Donald Mclean

"I recommend Getting By to anyone searching for a more complex and authentic picture of life in poor neighbourhoods than that depicted in the barrage of increasingly banal selection of TV programmes which dominate our screens." 

Probation Journal

A very fine ethnography of life in austerity Britain, charting the resilience and creativity of the community it describes, as well as their injuries and mistreatment by others.

John Holmwood

A very personal approach to the topic of low-income working-class families in poorer communities in the context of the gradual implementation of austerity measures in Britain. . . . [McKenzie] leads the reader to examine their own understanding of the working class by challenging the stigma attached to this identity and by representing this silenced community in modern Britain.

Network, Magazine of the British Sociological Association - Frederike Scholz

A heart-wrenching, eminently readable, powerful book, uncovering incredibly resourceful survival strategies for staying human in conditions of inhumanity.

Bev Skeggs

This book challenges social scientists to think again about how working-class life on urban estates is portrayed, both academically and in the mainstream media.

Social Policy & Administration

Mckenzie has managed to transform several academic pieces of work into an accessible book full of humanity and honesty about St Ann’s and some of the people who live there.

Spokesman (UK)

Essential reading for twenty-first-century Britain.

author of “Why We Can’t Afford the Rich” - Andrew Sayer

An essential antidote to media and governmental depictions of poverty, drawing on the powerful voices of working-class people themselves.

author of “Revolting Subjects” - Imogen Tyler

A book that pulls no punches about its politics and commitment to challenging the anti-working class hatreds that are so prevalent in the United Kingdom today.

Journal of Poverty and Social Justice

A moving portrait of stigma and inequality that shows, powerfully, why we must put value at the centre of class analysis.

Tracey Jensen

McKenzie did not try to paint an idyllic view of the council estate with its ethnic tensions across families that settled many generations ago. However, her ethnography, which describes a mixed race community facing racism and endogamy from the middle classes, balances the narrow-minded view that often associates lower classes with racism.

lectures.revues.org

The stories within this book lay bare what it means to be regarded as inferior and an outcast in your own society. This is a resolutely impressive book written with authenticity and passion.

Mary O’Hara

The book excels in bringing to life the realities of life lived in hard circumstances and the ways in which people respond to troubling experiences and harsh life conditions.

Journal of Social Policy

“The stories within this book lay bare what it means to be regarded as inferior and an outcast in your own society. This is a resolutely impressive book written with authenticity and passion.

Mary O’Hara

The stories within this book lay bare what it means to be regarded as inferior and an outcast in your own society. This is a resolutely impressive book written with authenticity and passion.

Mary O'Hara