Exploring how cultural impoverishment and social disintegration is a

pinnacle factor of societal injustice

For centuries on end injustice has been ingrained into society. Injustice
imprisons people; leaving them unable to reach their full potential. There are
many contemporary examples of unjust actions, the daily news reports are
testament to this. Injustice is definitely not a new thing and as a generally well-
informed generation, I feel it is our duty to challenge our society and leaders to
question and look to revolve the injustices present within society.

Injustice comes in many different forms. However, throughout the duration of

this essay the focus will specifically be on the inequalities regarding wealth on
a cultural basis. My aim in my upcoming project is to produce work to raise
awareness about societal injustice and social disintegration while challenging
what people associate with these areas e.g. areas experiencing poverty are
always places of crime. A specific focus will be on the sense of community that
binds people living in poorer areas together. I have taken inspiration for this
idea from the work of Karla and James Murray (the Disappearing Face of New
York) who’s work I have explored in great depth.

Research by the Health and Community services workforce council have

revealed five basic principles for achieving social justice, principles which many
people take for granted. These principles include: “access, equity, rights and
participation”1. This is something which I definitely identity which when trying
to analyse social justice and therefore I aim to document and dissect how
these principles should be (and how at present time they are not)
implemented into society in order for social justice to be achieved.

It is apparent that some people very ignorantly associate impoverished places

with a lack of what one would view as being “traditionally British”
which is something that is promoted by right wing parties and particularly the
current government who believe in ‘traditional’ values. The conservative party
have been in government for 10 years which demonstrates a high level of
support for these views. This creates a completely unfair reputation for the
people who live in these places. Historically speaking marginalised groups of
people have been the target of prejudice comments and this is still the case
today. There are social “norms” that British people relate to that are very
simple such as drinking tea. However, some people take this a step further and

1
Australian Government department of health “basic principles of social justice"
believe that you can only identity as being British if you are a white individual.
This is a view that I wish to challenge through my work.

This unfair reputation, as previously mentioned, includes things such as

laziness, setting out to commit crimes or a particular level of intellect. This
encourages the discriminative nature of authorities and wealthy individuals, in
particular (although not British) Trump’s policies definitely do still assert some
influence on some British residents: “These reforms [referring to immigration]
will advance the safety and prosperity of all Americans while helping new
citizens assimilate and flourish”2 Opinions regarding government solutions
such as universal credit is mostly frowned upon and can be wrongfully
associated with idleness, leaving people who experience poverty struggling to
afford the basics for survival. Why should everyone living in these
impoverished areas be tarred with the same brush?

I stumbled across a much more positive article regarding the reputation of

Harehills in Leeds from a resident who believes ‘if the "socially challenged"
residents of Harehills just took a little pride and consideration for the other
residents, and the landlords stopped milking the tenants, then Harehills
reputation wouldn't be as low as it is’. This is still a statement which passes the
blame onto a smaller minority but it decreases the problem and sees it as
something that can easily be fixed.

It is also important to identify that poverty is not always caused by a lack of

economic resources, it is often a result of discrimination or social injustice that
prevent people from accessing tools, resources and education which are
crucial attributes in improving their situation.

As previously mentioned, during my initial research I explored the work of

James and Karla Murray who created Store Fronts: The Disappearing Face of
New York. Their work particularly stood out to me because it is a celebration of
culture and community and throughout their project, they recognise the
importance of social integration. Their work inspired me to choose this project
theme and allowed me to expand my ideas in terms of the types of inequalities
I can research. In an interview for the MAS summit in 2014 the couple
explained that one of the reasons, alongside some others, of them doing this
project was to acknowledge that these shops which they have selected to
photograph “help to define the cultural identity of individual neighbourhoods”.
Their focus is primarily on storefronts which represent “urban art and history”

2
www.whitehousegov
and stand out due to the “original facades and architectural details”. While
James and Karla were creating their project, they also wanted to ensure that
the importance of the shops for the community was at the forefront of their
work. They identify that these shops create a sense of familiarity for different
cultures such as breaking down language barriers which could be present in
“chain” shops.

The guardian produced an article on James and Karla’s work exploring “what a
difference a decade makes.” When the couple returned to the location that
they have shot their photographs for their project, they noticed that the shops
that they have focused on have now been transformed into chain shops. This
created a juxtaposition between the independently owned shops that once
stood there compared to the “chain stores, banks and luxury apartments.”

When referring to “culture” many things come to mind such as art, music,
religion and traditional clothing. However, this is not all that must be
considered when referencing an individual’s cultural background. “The arts and
other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively”
is the dictionary definition of culture. I wanted to focus on cultural
impoverishment, which is the idea that poverty is a result of a community’s
values or cultural norms, because it is clear that our society is divided based
upon the range of different cultures present within the UK. Immigration/
migration is a fundamental part of British society, yet many people completely
oppose it. This view has been reflected through the majority of Britain voting
leave in the EU membership referendum held in 2016. Holding referenda is an
excellent form of direct democracy which allows British citizens to be involved
in decision making. However, referendums do limit the electorate from making
a clear decision because the direction of an individual’s vote can only go one of
two ways: “Yes” or “No.”

Post referendum it has become clear that immigration has become a focal
point of politics due to people being vocal about it through the EU referendum.
It has highlighted the overall patriotic nature of the UK as it shows individuals
and communities opposing people entering the UK unless born here in order to
“regain sovereignty”. Lots of people are now at ease knowing they will have
“control over our boarders” and are free from being ‘enslaved’ by the EU. At
present the home secretary Priti Patel is introducing a point- based system
which will only welcome people who will contribute to the economy due to
their high level of employability demonstrated through an array of skills. It is
apparent that many “leavers” have not done much research because
immigration is not the only thing that Brexit effects. This perhaps suggests that
people are so bogged down about being able to create their own laws on
immigration that they are so blind sighted by the things that, in the long run,
may not result in the UK being this mighty nation that leave votes are
apparently so fond of. The media also played a big role in influencing the
electorate to vote leave and a referendum analysis website also stated that
“not only were there twice as many Brexit supporters on Instagram, but they
were also five times more active than remain activists.”3 However, it would be
ignorant of me to suggest that it is only leave voters who have this sense of
pride towards their country, many remain voters also do, but perhaps they
identify that immigration is a part of what makes Britain the nation it is today.

In terms of Brexit and the impact of immigration I found a document written

by the London school of economics and political science which reads “New
evidence shows that the area of the UK with the largest increase in
immigration did not suffer greater falls in the jobs and pay of the Uk- born
workers” the statement then follows on to explain what the blame around the
“big falls in wages about 2008” was actually due to “the global financial crisis
and a weak economic recovery, not to immigration.” This analysis of the
financial crisis Britain faces shows that people accumulate different bits of
information that they read in newspapers, newspapers owned by billionaires
who’s only aim is to make money and not necessarily always speak the truth in
their articles, and things they briefly hear on the television (which the majority
of the time only acts as a background noise while doing something else) and
then create a pretty brief argument which they cannot back up with any real
evidence.

There are many derogatory phrases regarding immigration and migration

which are being thrown around by some British citizen. How many times have
you heard the phrase “why can’t they just get back to their own country?” Not
only is this question completely ignorant but the comment also lacks a lot of
prior education. A large number of those people who are on the receiving end
of this sort of question are actually born and raised in the same place as the
person asking the question! Research has shown that 44% of the UK favour
reducing the number of immigrant’s coming into Britain (this is a recent figure
from 2019 which links to Brexit as previously mentioned) 4 If it isn’t bad enough
for the “average” person to be saying this kind of thing, some very influential
authoritative figures also openly hold views similar to this. This gives them the
ability as authorities to promote prejudice against people, based on their
3
Referendumanalysis.eu
4
The Migration observatory at the university of Oxford
different background alone. This almost leads to people believing that they
also have the right to discriminate against others because “if leaders and
politicians can, then why can’t we”?

This is the type of mindset that leads to unemployment amongst people of

different races and religions and therefore proves that this form of injustice
can result in poverty on a large scale. This prejudice nature of some people’s
ideology has resulted in inequality of opportunity meaning these divided
groups of society, as previously mentioned, do not have the same “access,
equity, rights and participation”.

As for social disintegration, this links closely with cultural impoverishment. I

thought it was necessary to explore these both along- side one another. Social
disintegration is “the tendency for society to decline or disintegrate over time
perhaps due to the lapse or breakdown of traditional social support systems”
An example of this would be Harehills which is in Leeds. This is a specific area
which I plan on doing a shoot in as it is a perfect example of social
disintegration as well as a celebration of different cultures living in one area
together. Harehills use to be an area of affluence: “People once aspired to
living here and it’s adjoined what was then referred to as ‘New Leeds” 5 This is
definitely not the case now as it is now described as a “horrible place to live” 6

Peter Mitchell is an excellent example of the type of work I will be exploring

throughout the research process within my project. His work perfectly
executes the message he is trying to visually illustrate through his
photographs. Initially, that being without researching Mitchell’s intentions
behind the shoot, I think he is trying to draw attention to the key work places
that many people were completely reliant on for earning an income. The series
include a variety of different locations within Leeds in the seventies and
eighties, areas which feature pretty run-down shop fronts. His work also
highlights the economic issues which were present for people living in these
areas. His famous image which shows Mr and Mrs Hudson outside their
Newsagents in Seacroft, Leeds shows a contrast of colours between the
newsagents and the Methodist church which could perhaps be symbolic of
religious institutions, and authorities as a whole, neglecting those experiencing
poverty?

Peter Mitchell was photographing a while ago (in around the 1970s) and his
work demonstrates this quite a lot in terms of the quality of the image. The
5
Ilivehere.co.uk article titled “Harehills, Leeds, one of the worst places to live in Britain”
6
BBC- Leeds Features- Harehills statement by Mr Sutcliffe
shop signs are also less modern than what I’m use to see on a day to day basis.
It is obvious that I won’t be able to create this feel in my own work however
looking forward to actually shooting I can explore different ways to photograph
in a different style to Mitchell’s. The composition of his work is something I
very much admire from his as an artist because in some of his photos the
compositional aspect of his work allows for a natural juxtaposition.
Juxtaposition is a technique I wish to explore in my upcoming project as it will
allow me to compare areas and features of social injustice with areas of
affluence and therefore better “access, equity, rights and participation.” In his
images where the focus is on a shop front etc he composes it so that the
viewer’s eye is immediately drawn to the subject as oppose to any external
distractions.

When researching inequality, a big part of it involved the opinions people held
towards the poorer elements of society; It would be fair to conclude that many
of these opinions are very bigoted and the majority of the time they stem from
authoritative sources. My aim throughout all my shoots is to raise awareness
for the neglection of poorer areas but to also celebrate the immense sense of
community and reliance on small businesses. After beginning to create work
surrounding my theme of inequality, my project has started to take a very
different route than what I expected. I have focused on a topic close to home
as housing inequality has and continues to affect people living around my local
area. At the start of my project, I took a more general approach to what I was
shooting. For example, I just went to a location and shot anything that I
thought was relevant to my overall theme. However, now I am making my
shoots more specific to different subgenres within my overall theme. I decided
to stay away from portraiture within my project because I didn’t want to allow
people to misinterpret my intentions behind the project in any way. As this
style of photography is very new to me it has required me to really draw my
attention to the compositional elements within my images. I have found
shooting store fronts to be more challenging, in terms of composition, than
originally anticipated but I have been trying to revisit previous locations in
order to perfect the framing of my photographs- I focused on researching
techniques presented by New Typographics.