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This paper draws on original empirical research to investigate popular understandings of prejudice in two national contexts: Poland and the United Kingdom. The paper demonstrates how common-sense meanings of prejudice are inflected by the specific histories and geographies of each place: framed in terms of ‘distance’ (Poland) and ‘proximity’ (United Kingdom), respectively. Yet, by treating these national contexts as nodes and linking them analytically the paper also exposes a connectedness in these definitions which brings into relief the common processes that produce prejudice. The paper then explores how inter-linkages between the United Kingdom and Poland within the wider context of the European Union are producing – and circulating through the emerging international currency of ‘political correctness’ – a common critique of equality legislation and a belief that popular concerns about the way national contexts are perceived to be changing as a consequence of super mobility and super diversity are being silenced. This raises a real risk that in the context of European austerity and associated levels of socioeconomic insecurity, negative attitudes and conservative values may begin to be represented as popular normative standards which transcend national contexts to justify harsher political responses towards minorities. As such, the paper concludes by making a case for prejudice reduction strategies to receive much greater priority in both national and European contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shifts discussion on social diversity from ethnic diversity to broader social diversity. We explore spatial social diversity and assess opportunities to encounter diversity in an urban context. In doing so, we prepared a description of diversity in the residential communities of two cities, Leeds and Warsaw, using census data for small areas (UK 2001, Poland 2002). Selected variables were used to represent the key social dimensions of difference: demographic, socioeconomic, ethnic, and disability. A cluster analysis using a k-means algorithm was implemented for each city separately and for the two cities combined using harmonized indicators. We selected eight cluster solutions for each city which had diff erent profiles and spatial distributions. A combined cluster analysis showed that there was little overlap in community types across the two cities. The paper illustrates that Leeds and Warsaw residents experience very different opportunities to encounter difference which need to be taken into account when local diversity policies are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]