Lisa Louise Mckenzie (born March 1968) is a British anarchist and research fellow at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

whose work relates to

class inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through Norm (social), norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and cr ...

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...

, and British working class culture. She was active in the

Class War Class War is an anarchist group and newspaper established by Ian Bone and others in 1983 in the United Kingdom. An incarnation of Class War was briefly registered as a political party for the purposes of fighting the 2015 United Kingdom gener ...

party and her research and politics have been influenced by being a working-class mother of a mixed-race child in a poor area of Nottingham where she grew up.

Early life and education

McKenzie was born in March 1968 and grew up in Sutton-in-Ashfield. She moved from predominantly white suburbs to the inner city of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

where she had her mixed-race son in 1988 as there were more black people there and she felt more comfortable. McKenzie attended university by going on an access course through which she realised that she could enter higher education. She earned her BA in 2004 and her master's degree in research methods from the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

in 2005. She completed her doctorate in 2009 on "Finding value on a council estate: complex lives, motherhood, and exclusion", also at Nottingham, which dealt with working-class mothers with mixed-race children on the St Ann's estate where she lived at the time.Dr Lisa Mckenzie.
London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Sociology. 16 September 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2016. The decision to choose that topic was a result of McKenzie's experiences.

Politics and activism

Mckenzie is active in

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soc ...

and regularly attends demonstrations in London. She opposes social mobility and instead wants the living standards of all working-class people to rise. She opposes private education and the charitable status of private schools. She opposes the sale of public housing through the right-to-buy legislation and wants to keep it public. In April 2015, she was arrested at a protest over the " poor door" at One Commercial Street in London and charged with three public order offences. She was subsequently found not guilty of joint enterprise for causing criminal damage, after a sticker was fixed on a window, as well as acquitted of intent to cause alarm and distress and causing alarm and distress due to lack of evidence. In the 2015 United Kingdom general election, McKenzie was the

party candidate for the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency; she came last, receiving 53 votes (0.1 per cent of the votes cast). The Member of Parliament,

Iain Duncan Smith Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born George Ian Duncan Smith; 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was ...

, was re-elected. The Class War party was voluntarily deregistered with the

electoral commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

in July 2015, 17 months after initial registration. McKenzie has described the phenomenon of

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

as a "violent process”. In September 2015, Mckenzie took part in an anti-gentrification protest in London in which the

Cereal Killer Cafe Cereal Killer Cafe is a chain of cafés that serve branded breakfast cereals. The original cafe was located on Brick Lane in Spitalfields, London and was the first cereal-themed café in the United Kingdom. The chain announced the closure of it ...

was vandalised. She was criticised for saying that the publicity was good for the owners.

Media appearances

In 2012, McKenzie appeared on BBC Radio 4's '' Thinking Allowed'' with Laurie Taylor to discuss working class alienation in Nottingham.Working class alienation - Nottingham council estate.
''Thinking Aloud'', BBC Radio 4, 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2016.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKenzie, Lisa 1968 births Living people People from Sutton-in-Ashfield Academics of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of Nottingham Political activists British political candidates Academics of Durham University British sociologists

Early life and education

Politics and activism

Media appearances

Selected publications

See also

References