Blog 2 – Inequalities and Political Engagement
Certain groups of people often feel that politics is a sector of society that is for people ‘smarter’ or ‘better’ than they are. It seems to be that those who have a lower economic background tend to think politics is just for ‘posh people’ to argue about over dinner. But where has this perception come from, and what can we do to help the future generation change this inequality?
Welcome back to my dearest of readers, I hope you are all doing well. As previously mentioned this blog post will be discussing how our economic backgrounds can impact how and even if we do decide to vote. Alongside this, as we always do here, we will look towards the future of what can we actually do to fix the problem instead of just ranting on and on about it.
It is no secret that there is a steady decrease in voter turnout in the UK. As we can see here in this graph bellow, despite a big dip in 2001 where the percentage of those voting was at 59.4%, there is a steady overall decline in voting since the 1950’s (Clark.D, 2021). But why is this?
Well, we touched on individualism in young people being a reason for that particular age group to be voting less in my previous blog. However it would be unfair to almost blame young people for not feeling represented. Instead, we should look towards if there are any other forms of groups who feel this way, thus I present to you those who have a lower class background.
Just like in my last blog post (I’m sure you’re sensing a pattern here) I once again do relate to this topic. Hence why I’ve chosen to write about it! A great post from Lisa Mckenzie from LSE included some quotes from two working class women which were discussing celebrities getting involved in politics, and a quote that really resonated with me was ‘We don’t exist to them, do we?’ (2018). They aren’t alone at all in having this mindset, a supporting article I found claimed that there is ‘no longer’ a political party for the working class to ‘identify with’ (University of Oxford. 2017). A common view that’s shared by working class voters is that whilst there are clearly political parties designed to support the upper class and their interests, there is no longer a similar type of party for them.
Attached is a quick video displaying some interviews suggesting that a party once previously intended to represent the working class has lost touch of what its supporters need.
Before having the privilege of attending university, I was also part of the group who felt that politics wasn’t for someone like me, and that even if I was to vote, who would I vote for? Nowadays I’ve had the opportunities and the time to look further into political voting, but previously I felt that politicians often wanted to distance themselves from the uneducated, lower income households such as my own. I feel in order to change this for others who might be like my past self out there we need to first figure out how this perception of voting came to be.
While of course this stereotype is perpetuated throughout the working class community, this fire has to be fuelled by another external source. And the source I present to you is in schools during our younger years. Now, you guys know your own class background and type of school you attended. I’m not asking for people to share their own private lives if they feel uncomfortable but I am curious if your lives correlate with the data. Because the data suggests that even from an age as young as ’12’, children from ‘various social backgrounds in England already show marked differences in their intentions to vote’ (Janmaat, G. J. & Hoskins, B. 2019)
Schools can greatly contribute to the social reproduction of inequalities between students who come from different socio-economic backgrounds, and this can be done in a few different ways. One which I really wish to touch on is the access to learning resources that can be provided in different school types.
Citizenship education in schools has become non-mandatory for students to be taught, when previously it was required in the same way that mathematics and English currently is for example. This therefore can cause schools who have lower funding and are in a lower class area to not have the support or ability to provide many non-mandatory subjects at a reasonable level. This is in contrast to schools in middle or upper class areas who receive private funding from various sources and thus can provide these types of luxuries for their students.
But you may be wondering, is citizenship education really that important? Some may think that influences at home may impact students a lot greater that citizenship education ever could.
As shown here, especially in the category of ‘personal efficacy’, for those who received citizenship education seemed to have a much greater impact upon students and their outlook upon their own political impact (Citizenship Education Longitudinal Survey). This shows therefore that whilst schools do tend to support the inequalities in different social classes and voting, by implementing changes to reinstating citizenship education to be mandatory students can have an experience to learn something that is essential to our daily lives.
To conclude for now, I feel that one way to change the thought process for the future generation of lower class voters is to fund and support the teaching of citizenship education in schools to help those most impressionable have a new outlook onto politics, one which they may not have the luxury of receiving at home. As mentioned, I’m greatly interested to know about your experiences, if you even have any, of citizenship education in schools!
References
Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study, n.d. Citizenship education in England 2001-2010: young people’s practices and prospects for the future. Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10020840/1/Final_CELS_report_published_version.pdf (Accessed 21 March 2022)
Clark, D., 2021. Voter turnout in the UK 1918-2019 | Statista. Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1050929/voter-turnout-in-the-uk/ (Accessed 22 March 2022)
Janmaat, J. and Hoskins, B., 2019. Voter turnout: how the education system widens the social class gap. IOE Blog. Available at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2019/12/10/voter-turnout-how-the-education-system-widens-the-social-class-gap/ (Accessed 22 March 2022)
Mckenzie, L., 2018. ‘We don’t exist to them, do we?’: why working-class people voted for Brexit. LSE BREXIT. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2018/01/15/we-dont-exist-to-them-do-we-why-working-class-people-voted-for-brexit/ (Accessed 21 March 2022)
Sky News, 2021. Vote 2021: Has labour lost touch with the people?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clBKsca9Z4E (Accessed 22 March 2022)
University of Oxford, 2017. ‘The death of working class political participation is due to parties, not voters’ | University of Oxford. Ox.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-02-16-‘-death-working-class-political-participation-due-parties-not-voters’ (Accessed 21 March 2022)
Hey Chloe,
I really enjoyed reading your blogs, the content was appealing, and I managed to relate to what it is you were addressing, in both posts. The conversational style you used to engage with the reader was used well. I agree that citizenship education is lacking in schools, due to factors such as funding and the autonomy provided by the government. I believe had my citizenship education been given greater importance, and my teachers were better prepared to facilitate deeper discussions, such as class debates surrounding politics and activism, I might have felt more prepared for modules such as ‘Active citizenship and Political Socialisation’.
Your page has a clear brand, this creates a place I think many would feel comfortable to share their experiences and opinion. In terms of engaging as a youthful participant, I think it was interesting that you mention individualism as a factor influencing the youths’ approach to politics. I agree that individualism is perhaps impeding how the youth choose to engage. Individualism as a social norm as well as a model for communities is disempowering, as it does not value the importance of collective action, and these modern-day values are clear in the practices the youth choose to partake in. As they are less likely to see their role as part of a collective and therefore practices such as voting seem to carry little importance to the individualistic youth.
I also agree with you in that the youth are not to blame for their percieved disengagement, as we are greatly underrepresented in the government and politics. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nW4GDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=grey+vote+prioritised+in+election+campaign&source=bl&ots=cv1PRlTdEy&sig=ACfU3U2dKhoB6WfIR4K_qA-_W-9SfQmtng&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwik3s60_bT3AhUSfMAKHRsBD78Q6AF6BAg-EAM#v=onepage&q=grey%20vote%20prioritised%20in%20election%20campaign&f=false This book discusses the mediation of the grey vote and in an aging population.
Hi Leonie!
Thank you so much for such a long and descriptive comment, I truly really appreciate your kind words and your feedback :).
To touch on what you mentioned about your personal experience with citizenship education, I would have to agree that my lack of past teaching has greatly impacted me in regard to my future experiences and even often in the news I find myself unsure of what certain things mean due to my lack of political understanding in certain areas.
The book you attached was also a great extended read to the discussion on grey voters, and I particularly found the segments discussing the grey voters attitude to the Conservative party a great source of data on the topic.
Hey Chloe! Your blog is really well designed and nice aesthetics, I can see you have put a lot of effort into your blog! Your informal way of writing has made it very easy as a reader to understand your point and engage with your blog.
I can really relate to the content of your blog, as I am sure many of our peers can too. I do find it interesting to think about how the way we vote or engage in politics could be so different if we all had access to citizenship education in schools. Especially as you have highlighted it can be different depending on their socioeconomic backgrounds, as we know children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to receive any citizenship education and vice versa for students of higher socioeconomic backgrounds.
As you stated lower funded schools are often unable to teach non mandatory subjects, that made me think. There is an abundant amount of research created stating one of the reasons why people are not engaged in politics and voting is because they have not received any education in schools. The government has controls over the funding of most schools, and one way to boost engagement would be to provide more funding to schools so children can have a citizenship education. If the government is aware of the research and the solution, why are they not resolving the problem?
To answer your closing question, I actually did citizenship as a GCSE in high school. However, I do not remember learning much as politics, how to vote or much about the different political parties. I do remember learning about feminism and creating posters as the disengaged teacher watched stuff on her computer. I think as high school students we thought if the teacher is not interested then why should we b?