Simon Hallsworth on the English disorders of 2011

On September 27 2012, Prof. Simon Hallsworth, Head of School of Applied Social Sciences of University Campus Suffolk, UK visited the Institute of European Studies of CASS and delivered a speech titled “When the rules went down: making sense of the English disorders of 2011”.

After briefly reviewing the process of the riots that took place in London and other metropolitan cities, and the reactions and explanations on these events from different sides in the UK, Prof. Hallsworth made an analysis of the deep-seated reasons behind these riots. He pointed out that riots always reflect a crisis somewhere and that they only occur when something has gone wrong somewhere in the social system, which as such reflect a legitimation crisis on the part of the regime in so far as the riot reflects its failure to establish the conditions under which rules will be obeyed.

Prof. Hallsworth made further explanations of the legitimation crisis of the welfare state, which is as well trapped into crisis and which has been worsened by the ongoing economic crisis.