Overview

Flapjacks and Feudalism: Social Mobility and Class in The Archers is an excavation into the family and class politics found in the clans of the residents of Ambridge, in BBC Radio 4's The Archers. A whole section of the book is devoted to 'The Fall of the House of Aldridge', with Brian's ethical misdemeanours and fall from grace, looking at how Brian could have hidden his scandals and changed the impressions surrounding him as a 'feckless farmer'. Another section sees the parenting skills, or complete lack of them, of the Ambridge clans put on trial, and used to predict the future leaders of Ambridge. Chapters in the book discuss the power of family and community networks, the oppression of the Grundys by the lords of the manor, and Emma Grundy's housing woes and the importance of housing in the success and security of those in the village. This book explores how far housing, intergenerational wealth, skills and access to employment shape life chances of characters and shows that, perhaps more than anywhere else, its not what you know but who you know.

Full Product Details

Author:   Cara Courage (UK) ,  Nicola Headlam (UK)
Publisher:   Emerald Publishing Limited
Imprint:   Emerald Publishing Limited
Weight:   0.415kg
ISBN:  

9781800713895

ISBN 10:   1800713894
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   16 March 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Haves and Have Nots: Wealth and Value in Ambridge; Cara Courage and Nicola Headlam  Section 1 – It’s who you know, and what you know about them   Chapter 1. The Grundys and their Oppressors; Keith Flett  Chapter 2. Two-in/one-out: network power, kin-keeping and ‘airtight’ distinction; Nicola Headlam   Section 2 – The Fall of The House of Aldridge, the Rise of the Oppressed Grundys?  Chapter 3. ‘If you have security, Ed, that is everything’: Deconstructing ‘security’ as a buffer against life’s challenges; Lalage Cambell  Chapter 4. ‘Feeding the Horses’: Modern Slavery, the dark side of construction hidden in plain sight in Ambridge; Nicola Headlam  Chapter 5. Borsetshire Businessman or Feckless Farmer?; Christine Narramore  Chapter 6. What to do when you’re no longer Borsetshire’s Businessperson of the Year or How to handle a scandal; Olivia Vandyk  Section 3 - Family function and dysfunction  Chapter 7. Contemporary social problems in a rural setting: using The Archers in Social Work Education; Helen Burrows  Chapter 8. Academic Archers Assembly: Putting the parents on trial; Cara Courage  Chapter 9. Accent and Identity in Ambridge: The link between spoken language and identity; Rob Drummond Chapter 10. ‘We Should have called him Damien’: A discussion of the impact of Henry Archer’s early years on potential crimes of the future; Nicola Maxfield   Chapter 11. Fear, fecklessness and flapjacks: Imagining Ambridge’s offenders; Charlotte Bilby  Section 4 – Housing and the Ambridge Fairy  Chapter 12. Rich Relatives or Ambridge Fairy?: Patronage and expectation in Ambridge housing pathways; Claire Astbury   Chapter 13. Staying in the Spare Room: Social Connectedness and Household Co-residence in The Archers; Paula Fomby  Chapter 14. Can’t Afford The Laurels?: Care Provision in Ambridge in 2041; Ruth Heilbronn and Rosalind Janssen  Section 5 - It takes a village…   Chapter 15. Parents, siblings, and the pursuit of power: Predicting the future leaders of Ambridge; Timothy Vercellotti   Chapter 16. ‘From the moment those two joined the committee it’s been grunge bands, sumo wrestlers and souffle competitions’: What Ambridge’s civil society says about UK politics in 2019;  Amy Saunders  Chapter 17. A divided village: A narrative study using a theoretical lens of speculative ontology; Maggie Bartlett

Reviews

Another intelligent and insightful exploration of The Archers from the Academic Archers team. This cornucopia of thought provoking standpoints offer readers the chance to reconsider what lies beneath the social system that permeates this 'everyday story of country folk'. -- Charlotte Martin, aka 'Susan Carter', The Archers The authors combine a refreshing academic rigour with an obvious (though not uncritical) love for the programme. The intriguing result puts Archers stories and characters into their real-world context - with a lot more laughs along the way than one might expect. -- Keri Davies,Long-serving The Archers scriptwriter

Author Information

Dr Cara Courage is a placemaking, and arts, activism and museums Academic and Practitioner, and Head of Tate Exchange, Tate's platform dedicated to socially engaged art. Dr Nicola Headlam is a freelance Policy Adviser with expertise in the role of place within economic development and in how, why and where social and spatial inequalities persist.

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