His eyes are slanted, side parting, suit, he knowingly holds his finger
up. "Family Values" is superimposed under it. The politician shown ontelevision explains: "Parents must take responsibility for theirdecision to have children. If they can't afford to live in an expensivearea, they have to move." A resigned-looking woman sits on the couchwith her three children in front of the television. She comments: "Thetwo-child limit on child support and the cuts in housing benefits havemeant that I can barely pay the rent. We could lose our apartment."BETWEEN BITTER ILLUSTRATION AND SCIENTIFIC THEORIESAn illustration aptly sums up the abstraction of "neoliberalism". Thedrawings are by Danny Noble, who won the Comedy Woman in Print Award for"Was It... Too Much For You?" Short, scientific summaries in thecolorful theory volume come from the two Brighton sociologists LauraHarvey and Sarah Leaney.We encounter class everywhere: at work, in rural areas, in culture andin everyday life. This is how the manual is structured and usestheoretical terms (e.g. gentrification, dominance of the middle class,gig economy) to illuminate the various fields with a short explanatorytext and illustrations.The highlight is the beginning of the book: the first two chapterssummarize a variety of different theories from Du Bois to Beverly Skeggsand make the work a useful short reference work. Above all, thehistorical outline of the class concept is worth reading and gives agood outline of the emergence of the concept and often neglected,problematic uses of the concept in the context of its emergence: thespread of industrialization and imperialism and the resulting attemptsby Western bourgeois hierarchies to justify it.Due to the brevity, the texts do not go into depth and thus serve as ashort knowledge input or inspiration to deal with the topic further. Theextreme abundance of illustrations with around 170 illustrated pages andfrequently recurring characters is remarkable. The biting sharpness andsuccessful cynicism get to the heart of the theories and put thediscussion into a tangible framework.Towards the end, the book moves in a concrete-utopian direction,discusses different forms of resistance (e.g. trade unions, bringingprivate struggles into public space) and names various theorists whohave dealt with these forms of action. Due to the brevity, however, itis difficult to find your way into the various subject areas, manythings are briefly named and little justified with examples from lifeoutside of theoretical treatises. With its strength in introducingtheoretical discourses, the handbook is a helpful introduction forpeople who want to deal with social theories."Class - an illustrated manual" was published by Unrast Verlag in April2023 and can be purchased here: https://unrast-verlag.de/produkt/klassehttps://direkteaktion.org/die-illustration-von-klasse/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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