Doing the Business by Dick Hobbs

Doing the Business by Dick Hobbs

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 CID 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.

"Doing the Business can be unreservedly recommended to lay readers for its intelligence, verve and penetrating analysis of police workFor 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 *

Dick Hobbs is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Durham.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780198258322
ISBN 10	0198258321
Title	Doing the Business
Author	Dick Hobbs
Series	Clarendon Paperbacks
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	1993-03-25
Number of pages	268
Prizes	Winner of Winner of the Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for the best first sociology book by a new author in 1988.
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.