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Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal

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First published April 2006

The ‘chav’ phenomenon: Consumption, media and the construction of a new underclass

Keith Hayward and Majid YarView all authors and affiliations

https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659006061708

Abstract

This article argues that the decline of the ‘underclass’ discourse in the UK, and the rise of the ‘chav’, are not unconnected. We contend that there are numerous homologies between the meaning content, objects and tenor of these two terms, and suggest that the ‘chav’ represents a popular reconfiguration of the underclass idea. However, we are also keen to note the way in which the concept of social marginality is reconfigured in this substitution. Specifically, we argue that the discourse of the underclass turned crucially upon a (perceived or real) pathology in the working classes’ relations to production and socially productive labour. Its emergent successor, the concept of the ‘chav’, is in contrast oriented to purportedly pathological class dispositions in relation to the sphere of consumption. In a bid to highlight this shift we consider the emergence of debates upon social marginality and consumption practices, and attempt to locate popular media discourse surrounding the ‘chav’ within this frame, including the various ways in which purportedly pathological consumption practices serve to organise this form of social classification.

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1 We should state that, although the findings generated from Lexis-Nexis searches are often very seductive, they are far from comprehensive, drawing on databases that can be either inconsistent or incomplete. That said, the general trends picked up by Lexis-Nexis are difficult to dismiss.

2 We should state that in no way do we endorse Burchill’s rather celebratory stance regarding the ‘chav’ phenomenon. Indeed, Burchill, like so many of the social commentators she criticizes, is clearly guilty of a series of class absolutisms. Consider, for example this slice of essentialism from her much-discussed Sky One TV documentary Chavs: ‘Chavs stand between us and boring moribund middle-class tastefulness - which is a sort of living death. Chavs are a mirror held up to us all. The middle classes look and see only their own failings. They hate us for their lack of moral values. They envy us our flare for fun. They’re jealous because we not they are our nation’s heroes... when they laugh at us they only show what fools they are’ (Chavs, Sky One 2005)

3 This emphasis on consumption practices in the construction of the ‘chav’ identity is further illustrated by the much discussed ‘chav rating’ system posted at www.getlippy.com/play/quizzes/chavquiz/. Of the 40 questions posed in a bid to ascertain one’s so called ‘chav rating’, 26 relate to specific consumer items (including seven specific brand names).

4 The term ‘down-loaded’ is useful here in that it helps to explain how certain emotions and social messages can be received and assimilated by the individual despite often being inherently contradictory or paradoxical in nature. For example, the emotions engendered by advertising very often, both incite and deny, compel and preclude.

5 See relatedly many of classic early criminological studies on the relationship between crime and style by the likes of Finestone (1964) and Chambliss (1991). Here much is made of ‘street style’, ‘proper dress’ (Finestone, 1964: 284-5) and seemingly irresponsible forms of expenditure - a great deal of which had much to do with the concept of portable wealth (i.e. one needs to turn one’s day-to-day street life into a ‘gracious work of art’ (p. 284) because it is here (and certainly not at one’s domicile) that reputations were made and displayed).

6 See ‘Chav Ban to Deter Thefts’ (www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/3983633.stm) and ‘Pub-goers Facing Burberry Ban’ (www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3583900.stm).

References

Anderson, L. and M. Wadkins (1992) ‘The New Breed in Japan: Consumer Culture’, Canadian Journal of Administrative Studies 9: 146-153 .

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