
Contents
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Introduction Introduction
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Social work, the underclass and moral regulation of the dangerous Other Social work, the underclass and moral regulation of the dangerous Other
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Moral panic, social class and the Other Moral panic, social class and the Other
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Moral regulation of the problem mother and her home Moral regulation of the problem mother and her home
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‘Glimpses of an earthly hell’ ‘Glimpses of an earthly hell’
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‘Tick-box’ social work, common sense and the invisibility of suffering ‘Tick-box’ social work, common sense and the invisibility of suffering
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A mother’s instinct, transgression and the impulse to rescue A mother’s instinct, transgression and the impulse to rescue
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A mother’s instinct A mother’s instinct
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Notes Notes
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Three Hidden in plain sight: poverty and the politics of disgust
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Published:September 2015
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Abstract
In this chapter the focus is the emotions of disgust and contempt that are discernible in newspaper accounts of the mothers, families and communities of children who die from extreme abuse or neglect. Drawing on critical moral panic theory, the chapter argues that media coverage reflects wider social and cultural anxieties about certain groups who are otherwise hidden from view; particularly the so-called ‘underclass’ and those categorised as Other. The chapter outlines the link between social work and attitudes to people living in poverty. The chapter shows how hostile coverage of social workers as bureaucratic folk-devils reflected contempt for their apparent lack of empathy for the child’s suffering. Social workers were portrayed as lacking a natural, common sense instinct to rescue children. But coverage also reflected deep anxiety about social work’s failure to engage punitively with mothers who stood out as shameless, not only because of what they had done, but because of who they were as moral subjects. Moral regulation by social work as constructed in the newspaper accounts involved surveillance necessitating close proximity to families who invoke disgust. Crucially, this proximity entails forceful interventions in the private space of the family home.
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