White Working-Class Rural Young People, Populism, and the Growth of "Dark" Bonded Social Capital

• In Event: 47.087 - Rural Schools and Communities: Conflict and Collaboration

Abstract

The paper critically reflects on ethnographic data derived from a three-year study in a white working class rural community in the North East of England. The study reveals the ways in which for white working-class young people, there exists strong feelings of frustration, anger and abandonment; feelings which bring to the surface issues of race, class and politics and which may be theoretically explained by the creation of ‘dark’ bonded social capital. At the time of a growth in right-wing populism the paper suggests these young people are bringing to the fore aspects of public contestation which educationalists have failed to engage.

Author

• Carl Bagley, Queen's University - Belfast