Revolting talks of migrant workers and community organisers - a UK community psychology perspective

Fisher, Jenny, Lawthom, Rebecca and Kagan, Carolyn (2014) Revolting talks of migrant workers and community organisers - a UK community psychology perspective. Australian community psychologist, 26 (1). pp. 37-50. ISSN 1835-7393

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Abstract

The United Kingdom’s neoliberal agenda has been theorised and commented on widely, notably around the austerity measures, worklessness and the Big Society. We respond to the call of the special issue, in centralising the importance of work for community engagement and individual identities. To explicate this we draw upon two areas of externally funded research undertaken with migrant workers and trainee community organisers to explore how individuals within these communities can be positioned as abject citizens. We engage with Imogen Tyler’s (2013) notion of revolting subjects to conceptualise the ways in which the particular positionings of subjects as revolting occurs within an English context. The paper engages explicitly with a critical community psychology stance to reflect on the consequences of the neoliberal agenda on paid and unpaid work within communities. We add to the call for community psychologists to explore, critique and challenge the current neoliberal codes that positions migrant workers and deprived communities as “revolting subjects”.