Anti-social behaviour and the London 'riots': Social meaning-making of the anti-social

Politicians, the media and even social scientists unanimously reacted by using the label ‘riot’ for the events that took place in early August 2011 in several English cities, following the death of Mark Duggan (Gorringe and Rosie, 2011; Greenslade, 2011a and 2011b; Morrell et al, 2011; The Guardian/LSE, 2011; Benyon, 2012; Briggs, 2012a). The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government has typically defined the events as ‘riots’ involving anti-social behaviour. Indeed, on 10 August 2011, David Cameron (2011a) called the London riots ‘mindless selfishness’, while Joe Anderson (cited in Bartlett, 2011), a member of Liverpool’s city council, referred to the participants as ‘mindless thugs’; and the Daily Mirror (2011) reported the occurrences as ‘mindless rioting’. This chapter argues that the so-called rioters were not mindless. Instead, such declarations are part of a larger process of meaning-making in which rioting is only one piece of the narrative. Virtually no one questioned this process of meaning-making, discussed the inherent (political) meaning and application, or addressed the analytical and conceptual qualities of the term ‘riot’ with regard to its anti-social configuration.