ABSTRACT
In this chapter I am seeking to apply a qualitative interpretation which demonstrates empathy with respondents who have been dispossessed, and then project ‘ethnographic authority’ in their accounts to challenge the legitimacy of the notion of a deviant ‘underclass’ (Wellman 1994: 578). Thus the aim is to use ethnographic data and analysis to present a critique of the New Right theory of an ‘underclass’ as lacking both evidence and explanatory power (Murray 1990). I shall argue that the term ‘underclass’ for the New Right is used as a means to heighten social fears and promote the idea of an ‘Other’ with the aim of ensuring conformity among the working and middle classes.
