Chav Culture And Class Analysis

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This article discussed the Chav as a new underclass, their social exclusion, their consumption and their presence in the media. The two main points were, Chav culture beside the etymology of the use of ‘Chav’, instead of underclass, in the popular English lexicon which explains the marginality reconfiguration after the substitution. Moreover, the discussion covered Chav stereotype either socially or in the Media. Afterwards, the critical commentary will assess this essay with reference to other related books, newspapers and journals.

The essay began with explanation to the exchange of the word “Underclass” to “Chav” in the last 50 years in Britain media as well as illustrating its background. It claims that it could be as far back as the
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Inequality of wealth intensified in reams of countries since the twentieth century (Lister, 2004: 53). Marx relates it to economic determination; in contrast Max Weber placed greater emphasis on social aspects. Marx & Weber were broadly known for their writings about this subject. “There has been a notable trend in recent years towards the convergence of Marxist and Weberian perspectives in the area of class analysis” (Clegg, 1989: 56). Surprisingly, the essay which is summarized above explains both the economic exclusion in addition to social marginality of Chavs without referring to Marx & Weber despite being key figures in this field which weaken their argument. Moreover, in relation to another piece of research about underclass, Journals of youth for example, (Shildrick, T. et al, 2009: 457) referred to Marx claiming “He understood that forces of global, corporate capital shape social class …show more content…
A similar argument was made by Imogen Tyler (2008) who claimed that, the word Chav has been used to abuse poor white Britain as well as to “distinguish the white upper and middle classes from the white poor” (Tyler, 2008, p: 18). We might then wonder, what are the moral impacts of applying words like Chav on the poor classes in society? Tyler argues that, words like Chav which are usually conveyed in an emotional way can create a sense of revulsion for the poorer people. However, it is fair to say that, poor abusing words are not limited in the UK; there are “white trashes” in America, “Bogan” in Australia and so on (Loughnan et al., 2014, p:54). In addition to that, British newspapers, such as the Daily Mail have criticized the word “Chav” declaring that, “[it] should be banned” (Camber,

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