Have been working on, and rewriting this post quite a few times over the last week or so....
In a few weeks time, teachers in England returning for the new academic year will discover that some of the students they teach were amongst those in courts over the last few days, or will have recognised some of their faces from the CCTV cameras that were broadcast in the media. Other colleagues will find that students have important questions about what happened in other parts of the country.
The Royal family and various politicians have visited some of the affected areas. Technology is being used to match the details of people taken from hours of CCTV and other footage. Anyone not covering their face is very likely to be identified and it seems that people are coming forward to identify people and thousands have already been through the courts.
Citizenship teachers and geography teachers (perhaps considering their Geography of Crime contexts) may also be exploring the issues which led to the 'riots' (the words used to describe the looting were also a matter for discussion), or the many reasons that were suggested for their rapid spread, or exploring the geographical locations of the unrest and the mapping of the impact.
There has been a wealth of material that has come through the news media but also, more usefully via my Twitter feed, often from retweets of material...
Some of this has been, understandably, measured and thoughtful, and some blogs written by people like Russell Brand have got a lot of publicity.
There have been some other responses, including these 3 videos from the IARS website
This references the 99% CAMPAIGN that I have blogged about previously...
The Guardian DATA BLOG produced some very useful geographical analysis of the data.
The same blog also has updated STATISTICS ON THE UNREST
There are various connections with geographical themes which are probably worth exploring and thinking through, as students will inevitably have questions and opinions.
There were also two interesting letters in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago now, with thanks to John Connell for guiding me to them...
The first one has an interesting exercise in relativism for Michael Gove, who spoke for the Government after the first night of rioting. The first from John Bloomfield:
Michael Gove leads the Tory law and order brigade on the riots, warning Harriet Harman and Ken Livingstone against "relativising" the issues when they raise the wider social context (Report, 10 August). This is the politician who claimed £7,000 of posh furniture on his parliamentary expenses, including a Chinon armchair and a Manchu cabinet. When caught out, Mr Gove simply repaid the money and continued untroubled with his career. Will it be OK in court for a looter to offer to hand back a stolen TV or a pair of trainers?
Jon Bloomfield
Birmingham
and the second from P.Keenan, which might form the basis for a map-based investigation:The current disturbances (in London) do not seem to affect an area with a hire bike stand. Is this a clue about social cohesion?
P Keenan
Newcastle upon Tyne
Reminded me also of the infamous Hurricane Katrina coverage on Yahoo News which was rapidly removed, but not before people had captured the different language used to describe people on the flooded streets.
Others have remembered a previous connection between David Cameron and 'hoodies'.
Interestingly there was an article by Ed Miliband from May 2011, on what he has done since he became Labour leader
People see a growing inequality between those at the top and themselves. They ask why it is so hard to make ends meet and why this squeeze is getting tighter.
They worry that their children will have a harder life than they had. They see what I call the promise of Britain – of generational progress – under threat as young people struggle to get on the housing ladder or get a good job. And they see the things that matter beyond the bottom line, such as time, family, place, under strain as never before.
It is these forces that explain why people believe the country is heading in the wrong direction and why it has been for some years.
There was also an excellent article by Lynsey Hanley in the Guardian. Lynsey wrote the excellent book "ESTATES".I could go on, and this post would be even 'later' than it already is, so let's get it out there and I hope that something here is of use to you...
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