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This paper discusses nihilism as it relates to contemporary urban multiculture in outer East London. It addresses how contemporary discourses on, and performances of, nihilism signal shifts in the constitution of urban multiculture. Attention is paid to acts of anti-sociability (and sociability) for what they reveal about contemporary urban rearrangement, and in particular the re-formation of urban multiculture in a moment defined by globalization, virtual communication, ethnic diversity and neoliberal marginalization. Through addressing discourses on, and performances of, nihilism the overall argument of the paper is for a renewal of the terms on which we understand and engage with urban multiculture, and for an appreciation of how relations between class, race and culture have shifted since key texts on the subject were published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses analysis of interview transcripts and notes from participant observation to explore white reactions to the introduction of diversity management in a large public sector workplace in Glasgow. The paper analyses white talk about racial equality in a social context where the shaming, exclusion and demonization of disadvantaged groups including migrants, asylum seekers and the poor have ensured that issues of entitlement and race are highly charged. It is suggested that in such contexts diversity management is being wielded as a new kind of civility by middle-class people invested in the objectification of poor whites. This represents a form of class conflict over belonging within the body of whiteness that risks reinforcing rather than redressing racial resentments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores collective memory in Newham, East London. It addresses how remembering East London as the home of whiteness and traditional forms of community entails powerful forms of forgetting. Newham's formation through migration – its ‘great time’ – has ensured that myths of indigeneity and whiteness have never stood still. Through engaging with young people's and youth workers' memory practices, the paper explores how phantasms of whiteness and class loss are traced over, and how this tracing reveals ambivalence and porosity, at the same time as it highlights the continued allure of race. It explores how whiteness and class loss are appropriated across ethnic boundaries and how they are mobilized to produce new forms of racial hierarchy in a ‘super-diverse’ place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses the contradictions of citizen participation in regeneration. Focusing on the south Wales Valleys, it observes that the creation of the Welsh Assembly in 1999 created a window of opportunity for a radical, bottom–up programme of ‘non-prescriptive’ regeneration, Communities First, which invoked active citizenship to address democratic deficit and economic crisis. Drawing on interview and policy evidence, the analysis shows how the programme became captured by a New Labour policy agenda shifting the priorities from citizen representation to ‘community activation’. This trajectory is interpreted in the light of Jones’ and Ward’s analysis of the ‘crisis of crisis management’, in which the state attempts to offset repeated failures to address economic crisis by a series of political-level ‘fixes’ that in turn create new problems. In the case discussed, these fixes take the form of risk management measures, which the paper discusses using the concepts of the risk society (Beck) and reflexive government (Dean). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the generational progress of ethnic minorities in Britain by analysing four labour market outcomes: economic inactivity, unemployment, access to salaried jobs and self-employment. An important contribution of this paper is the possibility to examine the impact of a range of cultural and social resources on employment outcomes, namely language fluency, co-ethnic spouse, co-ethnic employer, bridging and bonding social capital. Controlling for ethnic and religious identities, individual, social and human capital characteristics, it finds clear advantages of language proficiency in obtaining employment and salaried jobs. However, the second generation shows little advancement in all the outcomes examined and a particularly strong religious penalty is found among Muslim women. It concludes that persistent ethno-religious penalty experienced by the second generation poses a serious policy challenge and does little to strengthen our economy or in building a cohesive society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the social ties forged by Romanians in London with migrants of different origins in work and non-work contexts to offer a more nuanced view of ‘bridging’ social ties and related discussions of ‘everyday’ cosmopolitanism. Contrary to the overemphasis on ethnic ties seen as a form of bonding in migration research, the paper shows how Romanians bridge informally with many other migrants based on shared ‘non-native’ status. Alongside non-ethnically marked commonalities, ethnicity emerges as an important ingredient of cosmopolitan socialization, yet without necessarily signalling coexisting ethnic identities, as commonly assumed. Romanians' experiences further show that despite providing significant social and cultural capital, bridging ties with migrants, rather than natives, rarely accrue effective resources for social mobility. The findings suggest the need to disaggregate and qualify current understandings of ‘bridging’ social ties usually depicted in positive terms and uniformly as cross-ethnic relationships, or only linked with the ‘mainstream’ population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents traditional retail markets in the UK caught between a narrative of decline and revival, on the edge of a gentrification frontier. Traditional indoor and outdoor markets have become somewhat residual in many British cities but essential for many low-income citizens that rely on their affordability. At the same time, the market is being reinvented for a wealthier type of customer interested more in local, environmentally friendly, ethical and 'authentic' shopping experience. We take the case of Kirkgate Market in Leeds, the largest of its kind in Britain to analyse the process of disinvestment by the local authority, displacement of traders and customers and rebranding of the market for a new wealthier customer base. The paper is based on an action-research project on which one of the authors is involved alongside traders and other campaigners to defend the public nature of Kirkgate Market in Leeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mounting tide of foreign fighters leaving Britain for the Middle East to fight, sacrifice or find new lives has blighted European governments and led to the further tightening up of counter-terrorism measures. Since the first British arrest of a Syrian returnee (Choudhury) in 2014, the latest figures of foreign fighter returnees have surged to approximately 800. A number of strategies aimed at thwarting these trends have surfaced including a call upon Muslim parents to scrutinise their children’s attitudes and behaviour and to be watchful of their radicalization. Based on a study in the West Midlands (in the UK), the paper provides a snapshot of how Muslim parents have received calls upon them to report their actual or potentially radicalized children to the police. We argue that current practices are likely to be ineffective unless more democratic spaces are provided for free political expression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the role re-location has played in shaping the status of elite and middle-class schools in and around London. A Bourdieusian lens is applied to understand the institutional trajectories of 51 schools which moved from central London out to the suburbs and beyond between the 1860s and 1970s. It is argued that this strategy served to maintain, reinforce and create institutional prestige within the ‘field’ of schools serving the upper and middle classes. These re-locations have had a lasting effect on London’s school system, pushing key institutions of elite social reproduction outwards and away from the city centre. In discussing the motivations for re-location, Bourdieu’s (1996) theory of field and elite formation is used with specific reference to urban change, thus developing a Bourdieusian-historical approach to understanding the geography of social reproduction (Thiem, 2009). The focus on London also sets these re-locations in the context of broader socio-spatial shifts within the British upper and middle classes, in which new social formations were emerging, with an aristocratic-financial elite concentrated in the south-east of England (Anderson, 1964; Rubinstein, 1977). Re-location formed part of a broader process of urban and socio-economic transformation which created a powerful educational infrastructure for the upper and middle classes in and around London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a considerable body of literature dealing with various forms of violence against women, comparatively little research has explored the phenomenon of 'honour'-based violence (HBV) within the Kurdish diaspora. This paper seeks to challenge both dominant understandings of HBV and the institutional structures that underpin its context-specific practice as a method for controlling and subjugating women. In doing so, the paper draws on original research involving thirty-four in-depth interviews with stakeholders working to address HBV in Kurdish communities in Britain: the interviewees included police officers, prosecutors, staff from government bodies and staff from women's non-governmental organisations. After exploring the role of 'shame' and 'honour' in Kurdish communities, and how value-systems predicated on gendered understandings of these concepts give rise to HBV, the paper offers a number of recommendations for improving policy and practice, especially in relation to police responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on interviews with 25 Irish nurses living and working in Britain, the primary aim of this paper is to explore migration as an ongoing emotional journey. Drawing on the work of Hochschild, the paper explores how migrants discuss, describe and manage their emotions. In particular, the paper will explore the role of “emotion culture” in shaping the appropriate management and display of feelings. I discuss the women's early experiences of migration and how they managed their emotions of loneliness and homesickness. I examine how the women navigate the emotional terrain of transnational families and expectations of support and obligation. The paper focuses on how the stresses and strains of marriage and motherhood were negotiated and what happens when “emotion culture” and “display rules” are broken. Emotions are not just a topic of research; they also impact on the research process. One way of trying to uncover the emotions underpinning these interviews is by adopting a reflexive approach to the research process. Hence, as a second aim, the paper employs a reflexive approach to chart my own personal navigation of this emotional terrain both as an interviewer but also as a migrant and mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The population complexity associated with superdiversity brings a wide range of challenges for social welfare providers. Commentators have outlined concerns about the ability of service providers to meet the welfare needs of ever diversifying populations and point to potential problems in identifying the nature of need in rapidly changing superdiverse neighbourhoods as conventional approaches to consultation based around ethnicity become practically impossible. Using data collected in the West Midlands, which explored maternity service needs from the perspectives of new migrants and maternity professionals, some key barriers to effective welfare delivery in superdiverse areas are explored. The paper outlines the emergence of two challenges important in shaping new migrant access to maternity care in an era of superdiversity – novelty and newness – and proposes further research to examine the extent to which these challenges are faced in other social welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing ethnic diversity of the UK has been mirrored by growing public awareness of multicultural issues, alongside developments in academic and government thinking. This paper explores the contested meanings around ethnic identity/ies in community settings, drawing on semi-structured interviews with staff from Children's Centres and allied agencies conducted for a research project that examined the relationship between identity and the participation of parents/carers in services in northeast England. The research found that respondents were unclear about, especially, white ethnic identities, and commonly referred to other social categorizations, such as age, nationality, and circumstances such as mobility, when discussing service users. While in some cases this may have reflected legitimate attempts to resist over-ethnicizing non-ethnic phenomena, such constructions coexisted with assumptions about ethnic difference and how it might translate into service needs. These findings raise important considerations for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A persistent theme in the British and international debates about immigration and diversity is the controversial claim that living in diverse areas has negative consequences for intergroup attitudes and community relations. In the present paper we test this claim by investigating the impact of neighbourhood diversity and self-reported intergroup contact on orientations (outgroup attitudes and social distance) toward one religious outgroup: Muslims. Respondents were both White British majority (N=867) and non-Muslim ethnic minority (N=567) residents of neighbourhoods in England which varied in their proportion of ethnic minority residents. We tested both direct and indirect (via intergroup contact) effects of diversity on outgroup orientations toward Muslims. Results show that individuals living in more ethnically diverse areas-regardless of whether they are White British members of the majority or non-Muslim members of ethnic minorities-have more positive contact with Muslims, with positive consequences for intergroup relations with Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic and religious minority identity is a subject of intense public debate and academic scrutiny. While assimilation theories anticipate convergence of identity across the generations, discussions of reactive ethnicity, transnational identification and religious revival suggest that there may be a deepening or shifting of minority identity in the second generation. Yet the empirical evidence in support of these different perspectives is far from conclusive. Drawing on a rich data source for the UK, this paper addresses the question of whether minority ethnic groups in Britain show identity assimilation in the second generation. It concludes that both public and private forms of identification with the majority increase across generations, and minority identities tend to become less salient. This is true across ethnic groups, although there are differences in underlying levels and patterns of identity, reflecting variation in contexts of reception and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the young people enrolling on modern apprenticeships in the horse racing industry are women and many hope to become jockeys. The majority of those who realise these ambitions are, however, men. This paper explores this process of attrition, focussing on gendered embodiment and its relation to the development of the bodily hexis and habitus characteristic of the racing field. We argue that women engage in the bodily labour of engenderment in a context of hostility and harassment and that they develop a contradictorily gendered habitus which brings together attributes which are culturally associated with both masculinity and femininity. In order to achieve this they subject themselves to a disciplining and punishing of the body which creates a 'tortured' masculinity. Female bodies are, however, 'imprisoned' by the workings of the habitus and, within the racing field, their bodies are read as weak, not fit for hard work and as more suited to an office (or home) than a race horse. These embodied processes and practices place them at a severe disadvantage and result in women being a very small minority of jockeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative studies of the uses and changes of free time have been relatively rare in social history, especially in the 20th century. By reflecting on some of the ideas and findings generated by a new study that John Walton and Gary Cross conducted concerning the changes in the meanings and behaviors of playful crowds in the U.S. and Britain across the 20th century at Coney Island, Blackpool, Disneyland, and the Beamish Museum, this paper raises some of the possibilities and difficulties of doing a comparative social history of 20th century pleasure crowds. National and other differences will be considered in explaining why the Blackpool resort area survived much social change in the 20th century and Coney Island did not, as well as how Disneyland and the heritage site of Beamish reflected differing adaptations to middle class crowd and aesthetic sensibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Part I of this paper (Loader and Mulcahy 2001) we set out to trace the coming to prominence since 1945 of an elite police voice with a significant symbolic power to represent and name social problems. In so doing, we charted the transition of chief officers from powerful but essentially local figures (1945-1972), through the rise of maverick, culturally salient ‘police heroes’ (1973-1986), to the establishment (from 1987 onwards) of a more corporate and generally liberal police outlook. Here in Part II we develop a sociological interpretation of these documented shifts, by seeking to grasp: (i) contemporary transformations in the professional ideology of police elites; (ii) the relation of those elites to the architecture and programmes of government, and (iii) the changing social and cultural conditions within which the police voice with all its authoritative ‘social magic’ has during the post-war period been called forth, transmitted and received.[/p] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]