Exploring Social Class in Sheffield

This was April 2019 – exploring class dynamics in the UK and its impact on our communities including inequality and how we connect/disconnect from each other.

As a group we focused on the class system within the UK though we acknowledged the larger global system which dictates who has access to resources and wealth and who doesn’t.

Coming together and exploring social class, race gender or other dynamics where power, wealth, human value and privilege are distributed unequally - its often those from the margins that are left to do the work. Holding unbearable feelings such as shame and rage, they are often left to make explicit the underlying attitudes and behaviours that maintain the system that excerpts pressure – pushing down and impacting their health and communities daily.

It is part of class oppression that those from the working class and those deemed from the underclass’s are left to do most of the work in teaching how class operates in our society. As facilitators and members of our communities we have an obligation to share the load. Participants from this workshop in Sheffield were willing to explore and hold difficult moments, creating learning and connection even in the most challenging interactions.

Even though we left with much still left to do and say, I was touched to be part of the vulnerability, honesty and humanity brought into the workshop by everyone.