Challenging Alienation in the British Working-Class: Building a Community of Equals

This book explores the possibility of alienation amongst the British working-class and argues that the class is, in fact, alienated. Its point of departure is the right-communitarianism, who outline how the working class has become alienated as a result of a loss of its political agency, the breakdown of its communities, and the undermining of its dignity. However, where these scholars tend to propose solutions from a right-communitarian perspective, this book adopts a more inclusive, left-wing, position to address working-class concerns.

Dr Sam Taylor is an academic based at the University of Bristol, UK, focused on working-class issues in contemporary Britain. His thesis, titled Building a Community of Equals: Challenging Alienation in the British Working-Class presented a challenge to the prominent right-communitarian discourse on working-class issues and advocated for a Progressive Nationalism rooted in the ideas articulated by the Bristol School of Multiculturalism. His main research focuses look at late-19th and early-20th century political theory in the form of British Idealism and Guild and Ethical Socialism, the nature of alienation and its relevance again within contemporary society, and the place and usefulness of the ’white working-class’ within multicultural and progressive frameworks.