All In This Together?: Identity, Politics, and the Church in Austerity Britain

by Peter Herriot

Overview

Who are we, in Britain today? There was never any doubt about Britishness during the first Age of Austerity, immediately after the Second World War. ‘Of course we’re British’, would have been the response, ‘we’ve just won the war, haven’t we?’ Yet today, in the second Age of Austerity, being British, like some other traditionally held identities, is not as prominent nor as confident an identity as it used to be.

The collapse of traditional identities, and the creation by those in power of new labels such as ‘skivers’, ‘shirkers’ and ‘hard-working families’ has created a divisive narrative with devastating personal impact, giving the lie to the Conservative Party’s campaign slogan ‘We’re all in this together’.

Peter Herriot believes the tide is starting to turn. New and complex identities are being developed, and, as cuts to services start to affect almost everyone, different institutions such as the Church, advocacy organisations and academia are collaborating to challenge the dominant narrative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780232532593
Publisher:	Darton, Longman & Todd LTD
Publication date:	07/14/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	652 KB

About the Author

Peter Herriot was brought up in a fundamentalist family. He studied classics at Oxford University, but, when training to teach this subject, became captivated by psychology. He subsequently researched language development, memory, and learning difficulties, but while at City University, and then at Birkbeck, worked on organisational psychology. He concentrated on the topics of career development, personnel selection, and the employment relationship. Since retiring, he has related his academic discipline to his religious upbringing, writing on religious fundamentalism from a social psychological perspective. ‘All In This Together?’, however, is his first venture into the more general social and political arena. It was stimulated by unaccustomed feelings of anger (‘outrage’ and ‘disgust’ now being debased coinage).