Moral-aesthetic regulation and class formation: The case of “chavs” in the UK

This paper addresses recent developments in the research on moral panics, moral regulation and social class, through an analysis of the public discourse on ‘chavs’ in the media, on websites and in popular culture. The term recently emerged in Britain as a derogatory way of labelling white working-class youths dressed in streetwear clothing and jewellery. Drawing on a ‘culturalist’ conception of class influenced by Bourdieu and Geertz, the paper argues that ‘chavs’ are constructed around moral and aesthetic boundaries as a ‘rough’ fraction of the white British working-class – a ‘folk devil’ against whom middle-class and ‘respectable’ working-class people distinguish and define themselves. Chavs are frequently associated with vulgar taste, loutish and anti-social behaviour, teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency. The paper also shows that the ‘chav’ phenomenon incorporates two historically familiar folk devils, distinguished along gender lines: young violent working-class males and single, welfare dependent young working-class mothers. In conclusion, it is argued that, while the ‘chav’ phenomenon displays some elements of a classic moral panic, it is not a fully-fledged one. It is better understood as a strong form of moral-aesthetic regulation of white British working-class people, which has a longstanding history. In this way, the paper demonstrates how the heuristic tools of moral panic and moral regulation can be used to understand the formation of symbolic class boundaries.