Crowds Community and Contagion in Contemporary Britain

<p><em>Crowds Community and Contagion in Contemporary Britain</em> presents the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to re-assess the neoliberal politics xenophobia and racism that have undermined community cohesion in the United Kingdom since 1979 and which have continued largely unchecked through the last four decades.</p><p>Guided by three interconnected ideas used throughout to scrutinise the meaning of culture as a way of life – Welsh cultural theorist Raymond Williams’ structure of feeling Jamaican-British sociologist Stuart Hall’s conception of the conjuncture and Belgian political philosopher Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism – Sarah Lowndes finds that a renewed sense of mutual regard and collective responsibility are necessary to meet the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. She begins by reflecting on public gatherings in Britain from 1945 to 2019 moving on to analyse five key examples of public gatherings affected by the pandemic in 2020 onwards: Chinese New Year the UEFA Champions League Final VE Day street parties Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the cancellation of Eid ul-Adha celebrations. </p><p>A thorough examination of how ideas proliferate and spread through our society public sphere and collective consciousness this book will appeal to scholars and upper-level students of cultural studies cultural history sociology and politics.</p>