David Bates

David Bates is a lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sunderland and Newcastle University. He has worked as constituency caseworker for an MP and as a youth worker in the voluntary sector.

Austerity and 'Benefits Street' in Stockton-on-Tees

The myths on which Benefits Street was based – namely the myth of so-called “workless communities” – are demonstrably false; however the furore it has generated demonstrates that the politics of class and representation still matter.

By David Bates

/ 4 Jul 2016