{"id":183,"date":"2023-07-19T17:50:17","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T16:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/irph-students\/?p=183"},"modified":"2023-07-20T14:36:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T13:36:42","slug":"beating-hearts-of-the-community-pubs-and-the-politics-of-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/irph-students\/2023\/07\/19\/beating-hearts-of-the-community-pubs-and-the-politics-of-nostalgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating hearts of the community? Pubs and the politics of nostalgia."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Lewis Alderton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I completed my bachelor\u2019s degree in history and politics in June 2023, finishing with a 2:1 overall. Having thoroughly enjoyed my time in Loughborough, I decided to complete my MA here as well, and so will be returning in October as a part of the MA International Security course. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I took the opportunity to continue my career in hospitality, moving into management roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whilst undertaking Dr Matthew McCullock\u2019s part C module, Remembering Postwar Britain,<\/em> I was tasked with producing an essay which considered the implications of nostalgia in relation to a topic of my choosing. Having worked in the hospitality sector for the better part of a decade, nostalgic remarks such as \u2018the pub isn\u2019t what it used to be\u2019, \u2018I remember when a pint was x<\/em>, y<\/em>, or z<\/em> amount\u2019, and various other reminiscences of the great \u2018back then\u2019, have become all too familiar to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, I considered such comments to be the alcohol-induced ramblings of those unwilling to accept change. Pubs had, after all, become more accessible – with a wider range of available drinks and easier means of placing orders. This was the case, at least, until I began to consider nostalgia not as a throwaway sentiment, but as a reflection of broader social discontent within the present regarding the perceived safety of one\u2019s own identity, a notion proposed within Fred Davis\u2019 theory of nostalgia – and one which I built upon when assessing political applications of Svetlana Boym\u2019s theory of restorative nostalgia within my dissertation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In accepting the scholarly position of nostalgia as a reaction to a perceived attack on an identity, I used my essay to explore the idea that nostalgia for the pub was a reaction to the decline of the British identity, particularly values of sociability and community which have become particularly damaged over the last decade. The Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, Brexit before that, and an increase in high-profile social movements such as Black Lives Matter, meant that the British public perceived itself to be becoming ever more physically, politically, and socially divided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to present this argument, I first had to establish the link between the institution of the pub and the traditional British values of community and socialisation. To do this, I first assessed the work of scholars at the forefront of the field, such as Thomas Thurnell-Reid, who argues the institutional importance of pubs as \u2018a representation of the social heart of community life\u2019. Following this, I studied primary evidence in the form of government statistics and contemporary articles regarding the closure of pubs, finding that between 2016 and 2017, following the Brexit referendum, pubs closed at a rate of nearly 40 per week \u2013 whilst nearly 10,000 licenced premises had been forced to close following the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In accepting the pub to be reflective of British values of community and socialisation, this decline in the pub industry \u2013 particularly the loss of distinctive \u2018locals\u2019 to chains \u2013 must therefore indicate perceived damage to these values; leading to conceive of a perceived \u2018attack\u2019 on British social identity by the disaffected group and thus causing a nostalgic reaction for the traditional, more secure pub institution. This notion is reflected within contemporary reports of pub closure, which often choose to use emotive phrases such as \u2018devastating blows to communities and \u2018the loss of the beating heart of a community\u2019 in order to describe pub closures. Clearly, values of community and sociability are of value to the British public, and the broader British Identity. I determined, therefore, that nostalgia for the pub is reflective of broader concerns regarding the British social identity, onset by the increasing decline of the pub industry, which is viewed by many as symbolic of these values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Nikola Jovanovic<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To find out more:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n