“Race”, Space and Social Action: The UK Riots 2011

The issues of “race”, place and its connections to traditional and social media have never been so significant. The riots that occurred in the UK in 2011 signalled a watershed moment in locating virtual networks of communication to heterogeneous groups which resulted in
autonomous social action. The purpose of this paper is to make intelligible the UK riots and the complexities involved in binding together disparate groups of people together during a key period of social unrest. It seeks to uncover these connections further to elucidate the ways in which old and new technologies help to create virtual and offline enclaves which transcend the confines of “race”, class and gender. The methods that will be used to uncover the multifaceted responses to the riots will be multidisciplinary; it will involve an analysis of the UK press at the height of the riots, secondary analysis of public sentiment and social media.