Remembering the riots: Citizenship and ‘social cleansing’ after the London riots of 2011

This report argues that a specifically neoliberal notion of citizenship underpins much of the media and political rhetoric around the London riots of 2011. Drawing on interviews with students in a South London comprehensive school, this essay explores the ways in which dominant discourses are variously embodied, resisted and challenged. The students’ discussions reveal a degree of complexity that is lacking in much of the simplistic, polarised media and political coverage of the riots.