Ethnicities Without Guarantees: An Empirical Approach

Abstract

What can the close study of everyday interactional life in a multi-ethnic urban setting reveal to us about contemporary ethnicity? Both in public debate and social science research over the last 50 years or so in the UK, the discussion of race and ethnicity has centred on conflict, discrimination, racism/anti-racism, equal opportunities policies and so on, placing ongoing struggle between clearly demarcated dominant and subordinated racial and ethnic groups in the foreground. In the process, overwhelming attention has been given to explicit (and often sincere) propositions and statements, whether these are the utterances or labels produced by social actors in the public arena (e.g. the 2006 Jade Goody/Shilpa Shetty controversy on British TV’s ‘Big Brother’), the views expressed by research subjects in qualitative interviews, or the conclusions drawn by quantitative survey research about race/ethnicity and differential outcomes in, for example, educational achievement.

The ethnographic fieldwork and data collection for this chapter was carried out by Lauren Small, and as well as drawing on Lauren’s work, we are highly indebted to other members and associates of the Urban Classroom Culture and Interaction project team — Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Constant Leung, Caroline Dover and Adam Lefstein.