The Politics of Nostalgia: Class, Rootlessness and Decline

Simon Winlow*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

Abstract

For ordinary people today, the future seems dark and forbidding. In generations gone by, parents looked forward with optimism, confident their children would do better. Not anymore. Standards of living continue to fall. Our institutions seem redundant, our cities dilapidated and dysfunctional. Electoral systems seem incapable of driving positive change. What is there to be optimistic about?

A multiplicity of escalating pressures and a growing fear of the future encourage people to look to the past to identify something positive, and the bittersweet sting of nostalgia now plays a key role in working-class politics and community life. But how should we understand our increasingly common retreat into nostalgia?

In this sweeping ethnography, Simon Winlow explores our common desire to take refuge in the past, and what it means for our political future.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationLeeds
PublisherEmerald Publishing
Number of pages208
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781837535484, 9781837535507
ISBN (Print)9781837535514
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 1 Jan 2025

Keywords

  • sociology
  • political sociology
  • policy and social change
  • social class/power

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