Doing The Business: Entrepreneurship, Detectives and the Working Class in the East End of London (Clarendon Paperbacks): Entrepreneurship, the Working Class, and Detectives in the East End of London - Softcover

Hobbs, Dick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198258321 ISBN 13: 9780198258322

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 1999

Synopsis

Doing the Business looks at the culture of London's East End and its relationship with the Criminal Investigation Department of the Metropolitan Police. The cultures of both the East End and the C.I.D. are examined in terms of their relationship with the market place and the emergent strategies of negotiation, trading, and, most importantly, entrepreneurship. The author breaks new ground in several crucial areas. He asks how well traditional notions of working class culture fit the East End, and argues convincingly that they do not. His model of an entrepreneurial working class culture (a shadow economy) is a departure from the routine "them and us" picture of class relationships in Britain. He links the working class ethos peculiar to the East End with the occupational culture of detectives in an illuminating analysis of the working identity of plain clothes policing. There is also much of interest and originality in his theories of crime and delinquency, and in his documentation of the history of detective work in London. This is a highly original and at times controversial piece of work that contributes not only to our knowledge of culture and sub-culture, but also to the sociology of policing, and the study of class relations and organizations.

About this title

Review

"Doing the Business can be unreservedly recommended to lay readers for its intelligence, verve and penetrating analysis of police work. For the same reasons, of course, the book will be popular with students of criminology, social work, social history and sociology. But to students the book offers much more than a satisfying literary and academic experience―it is excellent value in terms of the wide range of topics it covers ... read it! It's a winner."Pat Carlen, University of Keele, Centre for Criminology

refreshingly different and well worth a read (Police History Society Newsletter)

an affectionate and highly entertaining portrait of East Enders. It is written with immense charm and wit ... Immensely enjoyable, difficult to put down. (P. A. J. Waddington, British Journal of Criminology)

About the Author

Dick Hobbs is at University of Durham.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198258321
• ISBN 13: 9780198258322
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 276