Chavs
Whilst the title is an obvious attention grab, the contents of the book are nothing but informative and eye-opening. Chavs, as the subtitle “the demonisation of the working class” suggests, is a book about the working class. From the historical class of miners and factory workers who were proud to be working class to the modern call-centre and supermarket workers who typically shun the working class title because of how much it has been demonised, and this book covers why.
Day to day, most people might not think about class, yet it has had a great impact on who we are and how we perceive the value of others and ourselves. The purpose of reading this book for me was not about understanding the lives of others for a change, but to understand the influences on how I perceive others and myself. Understanding my own bias and what influences it is an invaluable skill for a therapist to have. As I often explain to clients, we have to understand the influences on us to change them, and class is no different. This is something I thoroughly enjoyed about Chavs, as Owen Jones does an amazing job of exploring and understanding the working class as it has been seen throughout recent history. He highlights the changes in politics and British culture that have influenced this change from pride to shame, doing an excellent job of explaining the purpose of the “them and us” mentality used to divide people based on wealth.
Chavs hits the nail on the head when it comes to being informative and engaging at the same time, so I have to give credit to Owen Jones for writing about a subject matter that might have normally helped me fall asleep in a way that keeps me awake, reading just one more page.
Where chavs falls short, though, is in its exploration beyond the surface of many aspects that may influence our perceptions of class. After all, the author speaks about community at great length in chavs but doesn't really dive into the impacts of subjects like religion and cultural background, which can both be a great source of community that often surpasses class. With the United Kingdom being as diverse as it is, I feel that these are important aspects that the book could, and perhaps should, have addressed.
So if you have ever looked down on somebody based on their perceived wealth, or even looked up to somebody for the same reason, then perhaps you should pick up Chavs and understand why those preconceived notions of class impact the way you think as much as they do. After all, it is easy to look at others and make assumptions, but it is much harder to understand their situation and how it has been manufactured to control them. This, therefore, puts Chavs on my long list of books that give people insight into the system that they are a part of, that they might not be aware is impacting their understanding of the world around them and the people in it.