Photo by cottonbro at Pexels. 

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 response I’ve 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 academia is a s-l-o-w grind; articles on Le Parkour and the Hummer are bouncing around in the technological void trying to find a home. Boing. Bounce. Boing. Wheeee…