Stigmatization, space, and boundaries in de-industrial Burnley

Abstract

For Loic Wacquant (2007; 2008), de-industrialization and the rise of post-Fordism, the weakening of the welfare state, and intensified economic polarization, mark the development of a new age of ‘advanced marginality’. He argues that we have witnessed the intensification of ‘territorial stigmatization’, as specific neighbourhoods within cities face both heightened material and symbolic degradation. Drawing on qualitative interviews with white residents in Burnley, particularly those that openly supported the far-right British National Party (BNP), Wacquant's notion of ‘territorial stigmatization’ will be explored. The article examines the ways in which such forms of stigma manifested themselves within Burnley, focusing upon the negative representations that were associated with areas identified as ‘Asian’ and ‘scruffy white’. The article concludes that these forms of stigmatization were a means through which specific areas were cast as ‘undeserving’ recipients of resources.