e-space
Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

    Recognizing the 2011 United Kingdom Riots as Political Protest: A theoretical framework based on agency, habitus and the preconscious

    Akram, Sadiya (2014) Recognizing the 2011 United Kingdom Riots as Political Protest: A theoretical framework based on agency, habitus and the preconscious. British Journal of Criminology, 54 (3). pp. 375-392. ISSN 0007-0955

    [img]
    Preview
    Accepted Version
    Download (200kB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Drawing on the 2011 United Kingdom riots, this article explores contestation over the meaning of riots. Is rioting criminality and looting, or are there political aspects to the act? For those advocating a political element, there is difficulty in reconciling how an apparently spontaneous act can have political motivations. This article argues that rioting is a distinctly political action, and in order to understand it we must theorize the characteristics of agency that underpin the act. Drawing on Bourdieu’s habitus, but developing it to include a preconscious component, the article develops a novel theoretical framework for understanding the rioter. Habitus is presented as a mechanism that can help better understand how experiences in the past affect the rioter’s present, thereby leading to a coming to the surface of underlying political grievances.

    Impact and Reach

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    429Downloads
    6 month trend
    303Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Altmetric

    Repository staff only

    Edit record Edit record