The United Kingdom’s neoliberal agenda has been theorised and commented on widely,
notably around the austerity measures, worklessness and the Big Society. We respond to
the call of the special issue, in centralising the importance of work for community
engagement and individual identities. To explicate this we draw upon two areas of
externally funded research undertaken with migrant workers and trainee community
organisers to explore how individuals within these communities can be positioned as
abject citizens. We engage with Imogen Tyler’s (2013) notion of revolting subjects to
conceptualise the ways in which the particular positionings of subjects as revolting occurs
within an English context. The paper engages explicitly with a critical community
psychology stance to reflect on the consequences of the neoliberal agenda on paid and
unpaid work within communities. We add to the call for community psychologists to
explore, critique and challenge the current neoliberal codes that positions migrant workers
and deprived communities as “revolting subjects”
