Class inequality and working class culture with Dr Lisa McKenzie

The Proper Mental Podcast

Welcome to episode 215 with Dr Lisa McKenzie, who is a working class academic and anarchistic author.

She is a researcher and educator whose work relates to class inequality, social justice, and British working class culture and a founding member of The Working Class Collective CIC.

Lisa grew up in Nottingham, in a mining community. After she left school, she went to work in a local factory with her Mum and her aunties and never considered going to university because it was never on the table. After her Mum passed away, she was inspired to take an access course at the age of 33, which led to a degree and then eventually becoming a lecturer.

Lisa’s work centres around class inequality because that’s what she’s experienced her whole life and, in this episode, she joins me to chat about the impact this can have on mental health.

We chat about the stigma that surrounds poverty and why no one wants to talk about class and we talk about the day-to-day challenge of just about scraping by, the myth of social mobility and how damaging it is to live with the unfairness of a system that is stacked against you.

We talk about the anger that comes from being ignored and let down, generational trauma and learned coping strategies and finding humour in misery as a way to cope.

And we also talk about some of the wonderful things that happen in working class communities, the unseen heroes of council estates, the community coming together and the important role of storytelling in the places.

You can’t talk about mental health without talking about class and it’s a part of the conversation that just isn’t happening.

This is an episode I have being trying to do for some time and it was incredible to get to chat to Lisa about her experiences and her work in this space.

It’s a big and complicated topic but we’re not scared by that here at Proper Mental and I’d love to hear what you take from it.

Follow Lisa on X @redrumlisa and Instagram @drlisa1968

Her own book is called Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain and she has also published Lockdown Diaries of the Working Class with The Working Class Collective and you can learn more at Work Class Collective

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Thanks for listening!