Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain's Underclass

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In these blinks, you’ll gain an informed analysis as to why so many in Britain feel left behind. Drawing on his own experiences growing up poor in Glasgow, Darren McGarvey presents an up-close account of the difficult and precarious lives lived within Britain's most impoverished communities. I believe our work within these communities would be aided by being aware of such frustrations, not least because they provide an opportunity to ask ourselves a reflective, yet potentially challenging, question. As a profession that seeks to support the marginalised and disadvantaged, are we using our voice to advocate for all marginalised and disadvantaged groups? Reflections for change However, we (trainee) EPs are encouraged to approach the needs of children, families, and schools from a holistic perspective. The popularity of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model is a testimony to this holistic psychological way of working. It is within this bioecological paradigm that the importance and relevance of McGarvey’s book for EPs becomes apparent.

Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s

I also found this book difficult to read because I kept getting angry while reading it. Not Darren's fault, just emotions being triggered. If I can learn a lesson from his story, it will be to examine why I got so angry. McGarvey has a lot of great things to say about the “poverty industry”; the dangers of centralized bureaucracy; hypocrisy among the left; the class divide; the sense of powerlessness of the working classes; not to mention his honest reflections on his own resentment, sense of victimhood, hypocrisy and personal change. Most of these themes come throughout the book, but the strongest and most central one – the personal responsibility he took to turn his life around – I’d have loved him to have talked about much more, both in his own life, and in the context of his own current work with the disaffected. It’s almost like McGarvey knows that this point will be met with groans from the left (with whom he identifies), so he has to spring it on them at the very end, after they’ve read all that they can agree with. In rhyming verse, he explains his rough upbringing. He references cheap alcohol and gray council flats. This is how McGarvey begins the songwriting workshops he teaches to prisoners all across Scotland. Over the next few weeks, he will hear his student’s stories, too. Inevitably, they will speak of poverty, drug addiction, and abuse. They will speak of lives that make crime hard to avoid. Poverty Safari and Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting deal with issues of poverty, deprivation and addiction in different ways – Poverty Safari through memoir and Trainspotting in fiction. Which book provides more insight and/or is more realistic?Some critiques - erased all aspects of female experience WHOLLY. I think women and girls got one cursory mention. Also as per usual only quote male references a la Akala. He used intersectionality and his critique of it to further his own arguments but the way he described it made me think he didn’t quite get it - as he misses off class that Kimberly Crenshaw would kmt at. She literally includes class in her analysis and he says she doesn’t which is a bit :/ also the chapters where he discusses racism made me just about cringe and die inside although I thinkkkkk I understand where he’s coming from…

Poverty Safari — Luath Press Poverty Safari — Luath Press

There is a warning to well intentioned 'middle-class' campaigners who might rely too heavily on academic or specialist language from their own particular area of interest that alienate the wider community, although there are a few passages of this book where the author could benefit from his own advice, because they read like he's trying to impress his sociology tutor. McGarvey is a gifted communicator; in the first of 32 short chapters (each named after a novel, with titles such as Nineteen Eighty-Four, A Tale of Two Cities, and Trainspotting, providing a hint of what’s to come), he describes his approach to engaging a small group of female prisoners in a rap workshop. Challenging and insightful, this is recommended reading for anyone involved in small-group teaching or other public engagement activities. As well as greater empathy, McGarvey’s other antidote to fixing our broken politics is to reclaim ‘the idea of personal responsibility from a rampant and socially misguided right wing’. He has changed radically (now sober and living with his partner and baby son), so why can’t others? I also really liked his perspective on social media and the need to critically consider beliefs and opinions you inherited or accreted thoughtlessly. I try to do this, but honestly it's so exhausting that I've taken to prioritising and not having an opinion at all on many issues. If I can't give something the attention and thought it needs, I've decided it's better not to take a view. Moreover, a lot of things that 'go viral' are so trivial that they just don't seem worth caring about. Surely it isn't actually necessary for everyone to have an instant opinion on everything.Poverty Safari - Understanding the anger of Britain's underclass" (2017). With the Guardian finding this to be 'one of the best accounts of working-class life'.

Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey | Goodreads Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey | Goodreads

Poverty Safari explores a lot of the author’s personal experiences: of his dysfunctional family, his alcoholic mother and violence experienced while growing up. In what ways is this book more than a memoir?Much as I hate to admit it, I should have taken some time to properly consider the best way to respond to Ellie's project. I'd been raised to think that any anger I felt was legitimate, merely by virtue of the fact that I was lower class. But even if this were true, the anger itself was only useful when expressed at the correct moment, in the correct way. It's only legitimate when it's deployed with the right quality of intention and even then, its utility is time-limited. Just like the booze, the fags, the drugs and the junk food, the novelty of righteous anger soon wears off, leaving you only with a compulsion to get hot and bothered, when often the solution to the problem is staring you right in the face. This isn't a popular thing to say on the left, but it's an honest one. In this case, I used righteous anger as a smokescreen to conceal something more self-serving. I had used the 'working class' as a Trojan horse to advance my own personal agenda. And I did all of this while believing myself to be well informed and deeply virtuous, unaware of how personal resentment was subtly directing my thinking." (Chapter 31: The Changeling) I expect that some readers may disagree strongly with McGarvey’s analysis of intersectionality and its place within the broader discourse of social justice. Nevertheless, it remains likely that his perspective will be shared by some who live amongst the socio-economically disadvantaged communities that the EP profession serves. This perspective maintains that the white working class are not being heard and are being drowned out by competing voices that are also advocating for their own legitimate social justice needs. Several times I thought about telling my brother, a social worker, about this book. The text actually reads like a manual for social workers. "Here are some things to think about while organizing a community!"

Books: Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s

Part memoir, part polemic, this is a savage, wise and witty tour-de-force. An unflinching account of the realities of systemic poverty, Poverty Safari lays down challenges to both the left and right. It is hard to think of a more timely, powerful or necessary book. J.K. Rowling At first glance, Poverty Safari may seem an unusual choice of book for an educational psychologist (EP) to read. It’s not obviously about psychology; it initially appears far more relevant to disciplines such as sociology, economics, politics, or geography.

I was aghast at how McGarvey made no mention of the deep and enduring sexism that blights the lives of the women of Scotland. He gives a cursory nod to the domestic abuse of his grandmother, but gives her no voice within his book, despite the fact that she was one of the more constant supports for him. This then presents another challenge for EPs. As well as seeking to use our professional voice to support and advocate for marginalised and disadvantaged communities, are we also a profession that really listens to the communities that we serve? Are we a profession that seeks to facilitate and empower the solutions that local people advocate to their identified needs? I’m not sure I have the answers to these questions yet, but they’re certainly worth considering. And for that reason, I’d really recommend reading this book which doesn’t shy from asking them. The welfare system is strongly criticised because McGarvey regards it as a punitive system for the poor and vulnerable devised by people with no real comprehension of what it is to be poor. The shadow of austerity also looms large within McGarvey’s safari tour. He lauds those instances where real grassroots community action occurs within disadvantaged areas, but laments that these efforts are simultaneously hindered because they do not fit with the preconceived ideas and preferences of the powerbrokers, those individuals and organisations that provide funding and a public voice for such local community projects.