E-Books →Crowds, Community and Contagion in Contemporary Britain

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.
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.