The Riots, Communities and Victims Panel report on the August 2011 riots in England has ‘missed the point’, according to Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby at the University of Kent.
The Report, which is to be published this week, places the blame for the riots primarily on advertising and on the culture of materialism among young people, although it also points to a lack of economic opportunities, the break-down of community bonds and a loss of trust in the police.
However, research by Professor Taylor-Gooby across 26 developed welfare states between 1980 and 2005 has shown that it is greater poverty, privatisation of public services and job insecurity that leads to increased social disorder.
He said: ‘The UK government is continuing to cutback vital support for some of the poorest communities. As poverty, joblessness and insecurity grows harsher, it is hard to see how we can avoid more social disorder on our streets. This report has missed the point.’
For his study, Professor Taylor-Gooby analysed the relationship between social disorder and increased poverty, greater job insecurity and privatisation in developed western countries such as France, Germany and the USA. ‘When societies are compared, those with rapid increases in the numbers in poverty are on average in the top third by the number of major incidents of civil unrest,’ he explained. ‘Similar relations are found for job insecurity and reliance on private rather than welfare state services.’
Professor Taylor-Gooby used data on poverty, privatisation and job insecurity from established international sources prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the leading intergovernmental body analysing social data. Social disorder was measured on a scale which summarises data prepared by Harvard University. This includes three kinds of activity: riots involving more than 100 people, political demonstrations of more than 1000 people against government policies (not including immigration or foreign policy issues) and strikes across several employers against government policies.
The Riots, Communities and Victims Panel was established by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Official Opposition ‘to listen to the views of communities and victims about what caused the riots and what we can do to prevent them from happening again’.
A draft copy of ‘Riots, demonstrations, strikes and the Coalition programme’ (Peter Taylor-Gooby, University of Kent), containing the full analysis of this data, is available upon request.
NOTE: Peter Taylor-Gooby is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research and Director of the ESRC Social Contexts and Responses to Risk Programme. He has previously advised the UK government on public policy reform.
For further information or interview requests with Professor Taylor-Goobyplease contact the Press Office at the University of Kent
Tel: 01227 823100/823581
Email: PressOffice@kent.ac.uk