I wrote an article on Chavs in 2004 for www.chavworld.co.uk The purpose of this was to quickly get across to a wide readership the awful authoritarian views which were being articulated through this underclass stereotype. It was the perfect forum, being accessed by students and those perpetrating these views. In taking this ‘democratic’ route I have been beaten to the academic finishing line by K.Hayward & M.Yar who recently published ‘The Chav Phenomenon: Consumption, Lifestyle and the Media Construction of a New Underclass’ in Crime Media Culture, 2, 1, 2006. Being the first to have a thesis published is of course the goal of all cultural theorists but sometimes principles must come before glory. Academic journals have a very small readership with an average of one and a half people reading each article – or as I prefer to imagine, one particularly tall person. So I feel vindicated in my original objective, particularly given the world wide response I received.
I have now submitted the article to a peer reviewed journal called Interstice. This has gone through its second edit/review and so I am hopeful of publication, particularly as my revised article advances Hayward and Yar’s thesis by bringing in a racial dimension to this stereotype. But academic work is an arduous process, unpaid and done out of the love of intellectual jousting. A recent article on Le Parkour was deemed unsuitable for an anthropological journal after feedback and so I am currently trying to find a new home for this. Similarly, the chapter I wrote on the Hummer for a Consumer Culture book has now been put back to sometime in 2007, having previously been accepted, finalised and given an August 2006 publication date. Writing, whether academic or fictional, is a slow drawn out process. If you are desperate to see the fruition of your work then find another profession, like gardening which offers immediate gratification.