Cohesion and integration agendas in Britain can be characterised by localisation of 'race relatio... more Cohesion and integration agendas in Britain can be characterised by localisation of 'race relations' responsibilities and the importance of local institutions in shaping neighbourhoods has been acknowledged. However, little is understood about the roles of housing providers in integration initiatives. Indeed, research on housing and race has experienced a lull in the 2000s. Thus, this paper aims to examine how social housing providers negotiate their positions and are complicit in constructing a certain vision of community. It draws on interviews from the ESRC Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE)'s work in the ethnically diverse neighbourhoods of Cheetham Hill (Manchester), Newham (London), Butetown (Cardiff) and Pollokshields and Govanhill (Glasgow). The paper makes three arguments: first, that race and ethnicity as facets of 'integration' have been subsumed into broader agendas, yet remain implicit in community building; second, that housing organisation practices are often detached from local meanings of community and prioritise exclusionary activities focusing on behaviour change and, third, that the roles of housing organisations in constructing 'integrated' communities are highly variable and localised, influenced by the history and contemporary dynamics of place.
Following the Civil Rights legislation enacted in the 1960s in the United States, the notion of ‘... more Following the Civil Rights legislation enacted in the 1960s in the United States, the notion of ‘colourblind’ racism has emerged within sociological literature. It has been used as a theoretical tool to explain the continuing presence of racism and racialised inequalities within a society where its significance in determining social location is increasingly disavowed. The use of the term has been restricted to those describing the politics of racism in America. However, this paper will consider the applicability of ‘colourblind racism’ to the UK context. The 2001 riots marked an important watershed in ‘race relations’ in Britain. They have been widely cited as marking the point at which New Labour retreated from the celebration of diversity in pursuit of a more monocultural, more ‘cohesive’ society. Through an analysis of the governmental response to the events of summer 2001 it will be suggested that notions of ‘colourblind’ racism can offer interesting insights into the developmen...
International Labor and Working-Class History, 2013
This article considers the highly contested and contradictory uses of the industrial past that co... more This article considers the highly contested and contradictory uses of the industrial past that continue to animate questions of place-based identity in the wake of large-scale deindustrialization. Drawing on media accounts as well as qualitative interviews with city residents, the representations surrounding Youngstown, Ohio's former middleweight boxing champion, Kelly Pavlik, and his asserted relationships to the city are considered. It is argued that through the various depictions of Pavlik, we see how deindustrialization has led to a more complex interaction of space and time—rather than marking a material and symbolic break from the era in which heavy industry dominated the city and its sense of identity—as aspects of the past are alternately disavowed, recovered, rearticulated, and reconstructed in relation to shifting economic, social, and cultural contexts.
Although the role that employment plays in reducing re-offending has been widely acknowledged, le... more Although the role that employment plays in reducing re-offending has been widely acknowledged, less work has been done to explain why this should be the case. To begin to address this knowledge gap, this article focuses upon the various ways that exoffenders benefit from employment opportunities, some of the specific difficulties they face in finding employment and how some manage to overcome them legitimately or else employ other adaptive strategies. Based on in-depth research with a sample of 12 exoffenders, the research reveals the precise importance of the role of social relationships in securing and maintaining employment for ex-offenders. Importantly, the key role of social ties in the labour market for those who have them highlights the extent to which those leaving prison lack both the relevant vocational training and experience of the application process to compete effectively within a labour market that is already set heavily against them.
In the context of deindustrialization and urban decline, America's industrial heartland came ... more In the context of deindustrialization and urban decline, America's industrial heartland came to be re-imagined as the 'Rust Belt'. Synonymous with outmoded and decrepit landscapes, identities and practices, the term has operated as a form of stigma, as places such as Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh became symbols of industrial, institutional and individual failure. However, in the contemporary period 'Rust Belt' is increasingly accompanied by an apparently incongruous term: 'chic'. Focusing on the narratives and essays of a younger, educated and predominantly white demographic, the article explores discourses of 'Rust Belt Chic', examining the social, cultural and political significance of this emergent phenomena thinking through the ways in which it constructs the past, present and future of deindustrialized landscapes. It is argued that within these narratives the region is valued for its liminality, for its proximities to the industrial past ...
In postwar England, the 'inner city' has loomed large in urban discourse and policy, serving as a... more In postwar England, the 'inner city' has loomed large in urban discourse and policy, serving as an important site through which 'race' has been rendered socially and spatially meaningful. Drawing on insights from history, geography and sociology, this paper traces the material and symbolic processes through which the 'inner city' has been the subject and object of socio-political knowledge and action. The article examines what shifting understandings of the 'inner city' and related policy responses reveal about the racialisation of space and bodies, and the role of the state in rationalising and enacting specific urban imaginings and interventions. In historicising dominant conceptions of the 'inner city', we identify three periods revealing key transformations within this formation: firstly, we consider how the idea operated as a spectre, in which the American 'ghetto' was seen as a predictor of 'race relations'; secondly, we contend that during the 1970s and 1980s, the 'inner city' came to be 'territorialised' as a pathological, racialised space subject to particular modes of institutional regulation; finally, we examine the relative fragmentation of the 'inner city' in recent decades, through urban regeneration and changes in the spatialisation of 'race' and ethnicity.
In this article we use the example of race/ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness to demons... more In this article we use the example of race/ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness to demonstrate the utility of a novel integrative approach to theorising the role of racism in generating inequality. Ethnic minority people in the UK are at much greater risk than White British people of being diagnosed with a severepsychosis relatedmental illness, and this is particularly the case for those with Black Caribbean or Black African origins. There is entrenched dispute about how we might understand the drivers of this inequality. To address this dispute we build on, and to a certain extent refine, established approaches to theorising structural and institutional racism, and integrate this within a theoretical framework that also incorporates racist/discriminatory interactions (interpersonal racism). We argue that this provides a conceptually robust and thorough analysis of the role of interrelated dimensions of racism in shaping risks of severe mental illness, access to care, and policy and practice responses. This analysis carries implications for a broader, but integrated, understanding of the fundamental drives of race/ethnic inequalities in health and for an anti-racism public health agenda.
This paper explores the implications of representations of places as 'diverse', particularly for ... more This paper explores the implications of representations of places as 'diverse', particularly for those who live in them. Arising from an interdisciplinary research project, the paper takes one neighbourhood in Manchester (Cheetham Hill) and explores some of the narratives about it produced by residents and those who have a 'professional' stake in the area. These are put in the context of public narratives of the area, as well as Census data. The paper examines how different types of data generate different stories and how different methodological approaches can produce varied understandings of place, which have implications for how a place comes to be known and for the potential impact on the distribution of resources. Cheetham Hill is known as 'diverse', or even 'super-diverse', but the paper examines how this label serves to obscure lived experience and inequalities and can reveal ambivalences over the ethnic difference and urban living.
ABSTRACT In recent years, growing academic attention has been placed upon the varied strategies o... more ABSTRACT In recent years, growing academic attention has been placed upon the varied strategies of rightsizing employed by cities to address the interrelated dynamics of economic and urban decline and depopulation. Within this body of work, the focus has primarily been placed on the city-level. By focusing on the practices and politics of urban revitalization within the Idora neighborhood in Youngstown – a neighborhood widely heralded as a success story – this paper deepens understandings of how rightsizing is enacted within more micro-contexts. Drawing on demographic data, documentary analysis, and observation, it reveals the process to be complex in its manifestations. Placing the critical gaze upon the neighborhood level exposes actualities of urban reconfiguration in the context of stark deindustrialization, decline, and depopulation, elucidating the actors and practices involved, in addition to its politically charged and contested nature. It concludes with a discussion of the wider implications of this case study both in terms of the possibilities and pitfalls of rightsizing.
ABSTRACT This article reviews a range of new and established writing on deindustrialisation. It t... more ABSTRACT This article reviews a range of new and established writing on deindustrialisation. It traces the origins of the concept from its popularisation in the early 1980s with the onset of large scale loss in the industrial regions of North America and Europe. We argue that with the passage of time, the academic field of deindustrialisation has matured as the scale and consequences of industrial loss become more apparent. We suggest here that sociology has not made the contribution it could have in this debate and that one of the key strengths of the area is its interdisciplinary nature; especially from disciplines such as geography, anthropology, and social history. Its key aim is to explain why this is the case and suggest that by fully engaging with the issue of deindustrialisation and the range of new material available, the sociology of economic life can develop a more rounded account both of work and its absence.
The riots of August 2011 that swept through London, spreading to cities across the UK, including ... more The riots of August 2011 that swept through London, spreading to cities across the UK, including Manchester and Birmingham, marked the latest episode of urban unrest, following on from serious disturbances in 1981, 1985 and 2001. Having been triggered by the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a black British man in Tottenham, the riots reveal the enduring racialisation of crime and disorder, antagonism between black communities and the police, as well as enduring patterns of racial disadvantage (Solomos 2011). Well-worn narratives of family breakdown, welfare dependency, gang culture, criminality, cultural dysfunction and moral degeneracy that have historically been attributed to both black and South Asian populations in the wake of prior incidences of urban unrest, featured heavily in the media coverage of the riots. Max Hastings (2011), writing in the Daily Mail, declared those involved to be ‘wild beasts’, symptomatic of the emergence of a ‘large, amoral, brutalized sub-culture of young British people who lack education because they have no will to learn, and skills which might make them employable… They have no code of values to dissuade them from behaving anti-socially or, indeed, criminally.’ The Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke MP, agreed, declaring the riots to be the result of the unruly behaviours and cultural practices of a ‘feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism.’ (Lewis et al. 2011).
Abstract This article analyzes the impact of the much-heralded Youngstown 2010 Plan and the enact... more Abstract This article analyzes the impact of the much-heralded Youngstown 2010 Plan and the enacting of a program of “controlled” or “managed” shrinkage. It is argued that while the program of redevelopment has had an impact on Youngstown and its national image, it represents an exclusionary project that has centered on redeveloping downtown areas and neglected many city neighborhoods which continue to experience high levels of unemployment, vacancy, and crime. The analysis is situated in relation to the contemporary literature on “shrinking cities.” Youngstown's experience raises critical questions regarding the nature of the challenges facing shrinking cities, the constraints on actions available to them due to state and federal funding, and the coherence of the concept of “smart shrinkage.”
Hurricane Katrina exposed the immobility of the Black poor, revealing the dual logics of concealm... more Hurricane Katrina exposed the immobility of the Black poor, revealing the dual logics of concealment and containment on which public space throughout US cities is increasingly built. However, the force of the hurricane eroded the distinction between the private ‘ghetto’ and the public arena. The response of government and the media was guided by an interpretive framework in which poor urban Blacks are marked by their ‘criminality’. It was through this, alongside the dominant colour-blind racial ideology, that the ‘revelations’ of Katrina, its knowledge or ‘truths’, were produced and managed. Finally, the rebuilding of New Orleans will be considered, demonstrating how the Black urban poor are excluded from the imaginary of the remodelled contemporary American city.
The emergence of the British National Party (BNP), primarily at the local level, has led to a pro... more The emergence of the British National Party (BNP), primarily at the local level, has led to a proliferation of political, media and academic accounts seeking to explain its rise. These accounts have focused on a homogeneous, fixed construction of ‘the white working class’. This article, written during early 2010, seeks to challenge these assumptions by offering a more nuanced account of the nature of BNP support. It will be suggested that the data available on BNP supporters demonstrates that a focus on such simplistic conceptions of the ‘white working class’, ignores the heterogeneity that exists within this group, while simultaneously downplaying how BNP voters construct boundaries, drawing on both ‘racial’ and class distinctions. The article then draws on qualitative interviews conducted with BNP voters in Burnley between 2004 and 2005, exploring how notions of entitlement rest on particular, differentiated claims to whiteness — claims mediated by class and articulated through as...
... 4Les Back, 'Guess who's coming to dinner? The political morality of investigating w... more ... 4Les Back, 'Guess who's coming to dinner? The political morality of investigating whiteness in the gray zone', in Vron Ware and Les Back, Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics, and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2002), 33???59 (36). ...
International Labor and Working-Class History, 2013
In this introductory essay we review key themes in the scholarly literature on deindustrializatio... more In this introductory essay we review key themes in the scholarly literature on deindustrialization over the last twenty-five to thirty years. While the term deindustrialization has been in use since the early 1980s, more careful attention needs to be brought to bear on the cultural significance of industrial change over time, including on how individuals and communities reinterpret deindustrialization through the lens of memory. This essay highlights contributions that reflect multiple disciplines and approaches, including interdisciplinary work. We also argue that cultural representations such as photography, literature, the media, and personal narratives offer especially useful insights into the continuing significance of deindustrialization, giving us access to the ways people are drawing on and constructing their memories of industrial work and of the process of deindustrialization itself. This essay and the wider special issue suggest that taking a long view—from the perspectiv...
Over the course of the last two decades, ‘whiteness’ has exploded as an area of academic inquiry ... more Over the course of the last two decades, ‘whiteness’ has exploded as an area of academic inquiry bringing together scholars from an array of academic disciplines and generating significant new insights that have contributed to a more complex understanding of a racialised positioning often taken for granted as a normative, unmarked, even invisible system of privilege. Within this field, the ‘white working class’ has come to assume an integral position. This category has offered an analytic object through which notions of enduring white privilege, white victimhood, multicultural politics and white racism have all been explored. While there are clear and striking political problems within all of these dominant accounts, this article instead focuses on a more foundational and related issue: that of the invocation of the ‘white working class’ itself.
In 2005, Roger Hewitt published White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism . Using quali... more In 2005, Roger Hewitt published White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism . Using qualitative research conducted in Greenwich, London and via an engagement with political and media discourses, he traced the emergence of a new theme within white racism. This article will outline the origins and development of ‘white backlash’, from Conservative MP Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968 through Thatcherism, and examine the re-emergence of notions of ‘unfairness’ to whites as a result of the actions of both New Labour and the British National Party (BNP). Using qualitative interviews with BNP voters in Burnley, Lancashire, England, the way in which individuals sought to ‘justify’ their actions with recourse to notions of ‘unfairness’ and ‘equality’ will be examined. It will be suggested that BNP supporters viewed multiculturalism and its perceived allies, positive discrimination and political correctness, to be the harbingers of a policy that institutionaliz...
Cohesion and integration agendas in Britain can be characterised by localisation of 'race relatio... more Cohesion and integration agendas in Britain can be characterised by localisation of 'race relations' responsibilities and the importance of local institutions in shaping neighbourhoods has been acknowledged. However, little is understood about the roles of housing providers in integration initiatives. Indeed, research on housing and race has experienced a lull in the 2000s. Thus, this paper aims to examine how social housing providers negotiate their positions and are complicit in constructing a certain vision of community. It draws on interviews from the ESRC Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE)'s work in the ethnically diverse neighbourhoods of Cheetham Hill (Manchester), Newham (London), Butetown (Cardiff) and Pollokshields and Govanhill (Glasgow). The paper makes three arguments: first, that race and ethnicity as facets of 'integration' have been subsumed into broader agendas, yet remain implicit in community building; second, that housing organisation practices are often detached from local meanings of community and prioritise exclusionary activities focusing on behaviour change and, third, that the roles of housing organisations in constructing 'integrated' communities are highly variable and localised, influenced by the history and contemporary dynamics of place.
Following the Civil Rights legislation enacted in the 1960s in the United States, the notion of ‘... more Following the Civil Rights legislation enacted in the 1960s in the United States, the notion of ‘colourblind’ racism has emerged within sociological literature. It has been used as a theoretical tool to explain the continuing presence of racism and racialised inequalities within a society where its significance in determining social location is increasingly disavowed. The use of the term has been restricted to those describing the politics of racism in America. However, this paper will consider the applicability of ‘colourblind racism’ to the UK context. The 2001 riots marked an important watershed in ‘race relations’ in Britain. They have been widely cited as marking the point at which New Labour retreated from the celebration of diversity in pursuit of a more monocultural, more ‘cohesive’ society. Through an analysis of the governmental response to the events of summer 2001 it will be suggested that notions of ‘colourblind’ racism can offer interesting insights into the developmen...
International Labor and Working-Class History, 2013
This article considers the highly contested and contradictory uses of the industrial past that co... more This article considers the highly contested and contradictory uses of the industrial past that continue to animate questions of place-based identity in the wake of large-scale deindustrialization. Drawing on media accounts as well as qualitative interviews with city residents, the representations surrounding Youngstown, Ohio's former middleweight boxing champion, Kelly Pavlik, and his asserted relationships to the city are considered. It is argued that through the various depictions of Pavlik, we see how deindustrialization has led to a more complex interaction of space and time—rather than marking a material and symbolic break from the era in which heavy industry dominated the city and its sense of identity—as aspects of the past are alternately disavowed, recovered, rearticulated, and reconstructed in relation to shifting economic, social, and cultural contexts.
Although the role that employment plays in reducing re-offending has been widely acknowledged, le... more Although the role that employment plays in reducing re-offending has been widely acknowledged, less work has been done to explain why this should be the case. To begin to address this knowledge gap, this article focuses upon the various ways that exoffenders benefit from employment opportunities, some of the specific difficulties they face in finding employment and how some manage to overcome them legitimately or else employ other adaptive strategies. Based on in-depth research with a sample of 12 exoffenders, the research reveals the precise importance of the role of social relationships in securing and maintaining employment for ex-offenders. Importantly, the key role of social ties in the labour market for those who have them highlights the extent to which those leaving prison lack both the relevant vocational training and experience of the application process to compete effectively within a labour market that is already set heavily against them.
In the context of deindustrialization and urban decline, America's industrial heartland came ... more In the context of deindustrialization and urban decline, America's industrial heartland came to be re-imagined as the 'Rust Belt'. Synonymous with outmoded and decrepit landscapes, identities and practices, the term has operated as a form of stigma, as places such as Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh became symbols of industrial, institutional and individual failure. However, in the contemporary period 'Rust Belt' is increasingly accompanied by an apparently incongruous term: 'chic'. Focusing on the narratives and essays of a younger, educated and predominantly white demographic, the article explores discourses of 'Rust Belt Chic', examining the social, cultural and political significance of this emergent phenomena thinking through the ways in which it constructs the past, present and future of deindustrialized landscapes. It is argued that within these narratives the region is valued for its liminality, for its proximities to the industrial past ...
In postwar England, the 'inner city' has loomed large in urban discourse and policy, serving as a... more In postwar England, the 'inner city' has loomed large in urban discourse and policy, serving as an important site through which 'race' has been rendered socially and spatially meaningful. Drawing on insights from history, geography and sociology, this paper traces the material and symbolic processes through which the 'inner city' has been the subject and object of socio-political knowledge and action. The article examines what shifting understandings of the 'inner city' and related policy responses reveal about the racialisation of space and bodies, and the role of the state in rationalising and enacting specific urban imaginings and interventions. In historicising dominant conceptions of the 'inner city', we identify three periods revealing key transformations within this formation: firstly, we consider how the idea operated as a spectre, in which the American 'ghetto' was seen as a predictor of 'race relations'; secondly, we contend that during the 1970s and 1980s, the 'inner city' came to be 'territorialised' as a pathological, racialised space subject to particular modes of institutional regulation; finally, we examine the relative fragmentation of the 'inner city' in recent decades, through urban regeneration and changes in the spatialisation of 'race' and ethnicity.
In this article we use the example of race/ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness to demons... more In this article we use the example of race/ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness to demonstrate the utility of a novel integrative approach to theorising the role of racism in generating inequality. Ethnic minority people in the UK are at much greater risk than White British people of being diagnosed with a severepsychosis relatedmental illness, and this is particularly the case for those with Black Caribbean or Black African origins. There is entrenched dispute about how we might understand the drivers of this inequality. To address this dispute we build on, and to a certain extent refine, established approaches to theorising structural and institutional racism, and integrate this within a theoretical framework that also incorporates racist/discriminatory interactions (interpersonal racism). We argue that this provides a conceptually robust and thorough analysis of the role of interrelated dimensions of racism in shaping risks of severe mental illness, access to care, and policy and practice responses. This analysis carries implications for a broader, but integrated, understanding of the fundamental drives of race/ethnic inequalities in health and for an anti-racism public health agenda.
This paper explores the implications of representations of places as 'diverse', particularly for ... more This paper explores the implications of representations of places as 'diverse', particularly for those who live in them. Arising from an interdisciplinary research project, the paper takes one neighbourhood in Manchester (Cheetham Hill) and explores some of the narratives about it produced by residents and those who have a 'professional' stake in the area. These are put in the context of public narratives of the area, as well as Census data. The paper examines how different types of data generate different stories and how different methodological approaches can produce varied understandings of place, which have implications for how a place comes to be known and for the potential impact on the distribution of resources. Cheetham Hill is known as 'diverse', or even 'super-diverse', but the paper examines how this label serves to obscure lived experience and inequalities and can reveal ambivalences over the ethnic difference and urban living.
ABSTRACT In recent years, growing academic attention has been placed upon the varied strategies o... more ABSTRACT In recent years, growing academic attention has been placed upon the varied strategies of rightsizing employed by cities to address the interrelated dynamics of economic and urban decline and depopulation. Within this body of work, the focus has primarily been placed on the city-level. By focusing on the practices and politics of urban revitalization within the Idora neighborhood in Youngstown – a neighborhood widely heralded as a success story – this paper deepens understandings of how rightsizing is enacted within more micro-contexts. Drawing on demographic data, documentary analysis, and observation, it reveals the process to be complex in its manifestations. Placing the critical gaze upon the neighborhood level exposes actualities of urban reconfiguration in the context of stark deindustrialization, decline, and depopulation, elucidating the actors and practices involved, in addition to its politically charged and contested nature. It concludes with a discussion of the wider implications of this case study both in terms of the possibilities and pitfalls of rightsizing.
ABSTRACT This article reviews a range of new and established writing on deindustrialisation. It t... more ABSTRACT This article reviews a range of new and established writing on deindustrialisation. It traces the origins of the concept from its popularisation in the early 1980s with the onset of large scale loss in the industrial regions of North America and Europe. We argue that with the passage of time, the academic field of deindustrialisation has matured as the scale and consequences of industrial loss become more apparent. We suggest here that sociology has not made the contribution it could have in this debate and that one of the key strengths of the area is its interdisciplinary nature; especially from disciplines such as geography, anthropology, and social history. Its key aim is to explain why this is the case and suggest that by fully engaging with the issue of deindustrialisation and the range of new material available, the sociology of economic life can develop a more rounded account both of work and its absence.
The riots of August 2011 that swept through London, spreading to cities across the UK, including ... more The riots of August 2011 that swept through London, spreading to cities across the UK, including Manchester and Birmingham, marked the latest episode of urban unrest, following on from serious disturbances in 1981, 1985 and 2001. Having been triggered by the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a black British man in Tottenham, the riots reveal the enduring racialisation of crime and disorder, antagonism between black communities and the police, as well as enduring patterns of racial disadvantage (Solomos 2011). Well-worn narratives of family breakdown, welfare dependency, gang culture, criminality, cultural dysfunction and moral degeneracy that have historically been attributed to both black and South Asian populations in the wake of prior incidences of urban unrest, featured heavily in the media coverage of the riots. Max Hastings (2011), writing in the Daily Mail, declared those involved to be ‘wild beasts’, symptomatic of the emergence of a ‘large, amoral, brutalized sub-culture of young British people who lack education because they have no will to learn, and skills which might make them employable… They have no code of values to dissuade them from behaving anti-socially or, indeed, criminally.’ The Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke MP, agreed, declaring the riots to be the result of the unruly behaviours and cultural practices of a ‘feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism.’ (Lewis et al. 2011).
Abstract This article analyzes the impact of the much-heralded Youngstown 2010 Plan and the enact... more Abstract This article analyzes the impact of the much-heralded Youngstown 2010 Plan and the enacting of a program of “controlled” or “managed” shrinkage. It is argued that while the program of redevelopment has had an impact on Youngstown and its national image, it represents an exclusionary project that has centered on redeveloping downtown areas and neglected many city neighborhoods which continue to experience high levels of unemployment, vacancy, and crime. The analysis is situated in relation to the contemporary literature on “shrinking cities.” Youngstown's experience raises critical questions regarding the nature of the challenges facing shrinking cities, the constraints on actions available to them due to state and federal funding, and the coherence of the concept of “smart shrinkage.”
Hurricane Katrina exposed the immobility of the Black poor, revealing the dual logics of concealm... more Hurricane Katrina exposed the immobility of the Black poor, revealing the dual logics of concealment and containment on which public space throughout US cities is increasingly built. However, the force of the hurricane eroded the distinction between the private ‘ghetto’ and the public arena. The response of government and the media was guided by an interpretive framework in which poor urban Blacks are marked by their ‘criminality’. It was through this, alongside the dominant colour-blind racial ideology, that the ‘revelations’ of Katrina, its knowledge or ‘truths’, were produced and managed. Finally, the rebuilding of New Orleans will be considered, demonstrating how the Black urban poor are excluded from the imaginary of the remodelled contemporary American city.
The emergence of the British National Party (BNP), primarily at the local level, has led to a pro... more The emergence of the British National Party (BNP), primarily at the local level, has led to a proliferation of political, media and academic accounts seeking to explain its rise. These accounts have focused on a homogeneous, fixed construction of ‘the white working class’. This article, written during early 2010, seeks to challenge these assumptions by offering a more nuanced account of the nature of BNP support. It will be suggested that the data available on BNP supporters demonstrates that a focus on such simplistic conceptions of the ‘white working class’, ignores the heterogeneity that exists within this group, while simultaneously downplaying how BNP voters construct boundaries, drawing on both ‘racial’ and class distinctions. The article then draws on qualitative interviews conducted with BNP voters in Burnley between 2004 and 2005, exploring how notions of entitlement rest on particular, differentiated claims to whiteness — claims mediated by class and articulated through as...
... 4Les Back, 'Guess who's coming to dinner? The political morality of investigating w... more ... 4Les Back, 'Guess who's coming to dinner? The political morality of investigating whiteness in the gray zone', in Vron Ware and Les Back, Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics, and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2002), 33???59 (36). ...
International Labor and Working-Class History, 2013
In this introductory essay we review key themes in the scholarly literature on deindustrializatio... more In this introductory essay we review key themes in the scholarly literature on deindustrialization over the last twenty-five to thirty years. While the term deindustrialization has been in use since the early 1980s, more careful attention needs to be brought to bear on the cultural significance of industrial change over time, including on how individuals and communities reinterpret deindustrialization through the lens of memory. This essay highlights contributions that reflect multiple disciplines and approaches, including interdisciplinary work. We also argue that cultural representations such as photography, literature, the media, and personal narratives offer especially useful insights into the continuing significance of deindustrialization, giving us access to the ways people are drawing on and constructing their memories of industrial work and of the process of deindustrialization itself. This essay and the wider special issue suggest that taking a long view—from the perspectiv...
Over the course of the last two decades, ‘whiteness’ has exploded as an area of academic inquiry ... more Over the course of the last two decades, ‘whiteness’ has exploded as an area of academic inquiry bringing together scholars from an array of academic disciplines and generating significant new insights that have contributed to a more complex understanding of a racialised positioning often taken for granted as a normative, unmarked, even invisible system of privilege. Within this field, the ‘white working class’ has come to assume an integral position. This category has offered an analytic object through which notions of enduring white privilege, white victimhood, multicultural politics and white racism have all been explored. While there are clear and striking political problems within all of these dominant accounts, this article instead focuses on a more foundational and related issue: that of the invocation of the ‘white working class’ itself.
In 2005, Roger Hewitt published White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism . Using quali... more In 2005, Roger Hewitt published White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism . Using qualitative research conducted in Greenwich, London and via an engagement with political and media discourses, he traced the emergence of a new theme within white racism. This article will outline the origins and development of ‘white backlash’, from Conservative MP Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968 through Thatcherism, and examine the re-emergence of notions of ‘unfairness’ to whites as a result of the actions of both New Labour and the British National Party (BNP). Using qualitative interviews with BNP voters in Burnley, Lancashire, England, the way in which individuals sought to ‘justify’ their actions with recourse to notions of ‘unfairness’ and ‘equality’ will be examined. It will be suggested that BNP supporters viewed multiculturalism and its perceived allies, positive discrimination and political correctness, to be the harbingers of a policy that institutionaliz...
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Papers by James Rhodes