Kelbert, Alexandra Wanjiku;
(2022)
It Shouldn't Happen Here: Colonial and racial discourses of deservingness in UK anti-poverty campaign.
Critical Social Policy
, 42
(4)
pp. 565-585.
10.1177/02610183221075960.
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Abstract
In September 2012, Save the Children UK launched the It Shouldn't Happen Here campaign, to raise awareness of the incidence of poverty amongst British children, and raise funds for the charity's UK programmes. Shortly after the launch, SCUK experienced severe media and political backlash, as primarily centre and right-wing commentators described the campaign as a political stunt, and sought to discredit, deny and depoliticise the claims that severe child poverty ‘happens here’. Drawing on interviews with former staff, and an analysis of the media response, this article explores the ways in which the campaign and the ensuing backlash were embedded in a set of colonial and racialized discourses around ‘who is poor’ and who is deserving/undeserving both in Britain and globally. Crucially, the findings from this study raise important challenges to the recent reintroduction of questions of race (as whiteness) in populist discussions around class and poverty.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | It Shouldn't Happen Here: Colonial and racial discourses of deservingness in UK anti-poverty campaign |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/02610183221075960 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183221075960 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Austerity, child poverty, media, race-ethnicity, white working class |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > SHS Faculty Office UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > SHS Faculty Office > UCL Institute for Advanced Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216042 |
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