Abstract
This is a book that has been long in the making, reflecting a decade and more of rigorous sociological investigation of an issue that has been too long neglected in much of the relevant literature. Despite its long gestation this book is incredibly timely and politically important. In ‘austerity’ Britain, reflecting echoes of the past, we have reached new heights in the construction and representation of particular groups of subjects as being, in some way, ‘revolting’. Tyler draws upon a range of approaches and theoretical perspectives, from governmentality and psychosocial theory, to unpack the political uses of ‘disgust’ and to construct her key conceptual tool – the notion of social abjection. This is not in itself new, but Tyler carefully details the way in which this can be deployed to turn around the revulsion of the state towards those on the margins back against that very state which is instrumental in practices of stigmatisation, marginalisation and disenfranchisement.
From the start Tyler’s focus on the role of the state, often overlooked, is central to the analysis and explorations she deploys in case studies of different groups of revolting subjects. In chapter 2, for instance, a powerful critique of the politics of British citizenship shows how policy towards despised migrant categories also relies upon abject figures. Being made abject constitutes people as ‘outside the realm of citizenship altogether, constituting them as illegal but … fixing, capturing and paralysing them within the borders of the state’ (p. 73). This is a state of being included through exclusion. As Tyler points out the increasing numbers of illegal, failed and stateless peoples within the borders of the contemporary UK are not an accident or the unintended consequence of failed policies but are part and parcel of the operation of the neo-colonial, neoliberal nation-state.
Chapters 3 and 4, on asylum seekers and on naked protests by a group of mothers at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in 2008, highlight how protest and resistance are possible even in these most oppressive of situations. Activism and political mobilisation in these contexts work to disrupt ideas and boundaries of inclusion and exclusion as well as lay bare the hugely profitable industry that has emerged around the management of asylum seekers and refugees as a problem population.
Chapters 5, 6 and 7 consider social abjection among groups that have long been the subject of revolting paradigms. The subjectification of Gypsies and Travellers, ‘chavs’, the ‘underclass’ and revolts and unrest by youth on run-down council estates. Tyler once more succinctly and sharply demonstrates the ways in which social abjection, by the state, of many of the most disadvantaged and impoverished groups in society acts in particular class interests. Classification of groups as revolting and abject relies on what Bev Skeggs has termed ‘class naming’. The classification of particular groups in this way then is part and parcel of a wider process of class antagonism and class hostility – and it is to Tyler’s credit that this is made explicit. All too often the classed basis and class relations which underpin and inform such processes are overlooked.
Tyler’s analysis demonstrates the ways in which this works not only to denigrate particular subjects but also to defend and advance the ideological and material interests of powerful and wealthy groups in society. In a context of the deepening divide between rich and poor, and a sustained assault by the state on the most vulnerable sections of society, the classification of marginalised groups comes to be central to securing the political climate for ‘austerity’, assaults on welfare and so on. It is no accident that, throughout history, the most virulent of attacks on the most disadvantaged often take place in periods of rising inequality and growing impoverishment. The riots in the major English towns and cities in 2011 demonstrate how ideas of an ‘underclass’, a ‘feral’ underclass even, were deployed to delegitimise claims by those involved that their very marginalisation and invisibility were the primary factors in their mobilisations in such events. The role of the media in reproducing and consolidating underclass and other stigmatising narratives and ideologies has been central here – as it is in all similar episodes.
In conclusion this is an excellent book. It is sociology at its best but goes beyond sociology in offering not only explicit political engagement but also the possibility of individual and collective resistance against state-produced and induced subjectifications. I have no criticisms to make of Tyler’s work, but maybe her arguments could have been developed in relation to territorial and place-based stigmatisation – building on her discussion of the role of council estates and unruly urban places. As Wacquant, for example, has observed, place and territory are becoming even more integral to processes of social abjection. Revolting people are often seen to live in places that are also regarded in some ways as similarly revolting! We do not have to look far to find powerful examples of this in the media, among politicians and among policy-makers. The state also plays a hugely important role in the stigmatisation of place – reminding us that against claims of the withdrawal or the retreat of the state, at the bottom of society it is increasingly active and in ways that are also hugely punitive.