Abstract
Although there is a vast corpus on ‘race’ in the British context, a relatively small proportion of this is devoted to the ethnic majority, i.e. white Britons. While there is no direct parallel with the investigation of white identities that has occurred in the USA with the multidisciplinary field of ‘whiteness studies’ (Garner, 2007), this chapter provides a contribution to the analysis of how people discursively make ‘white’ identities in contemporary Britain, in both working and middle-class milieux in places where there are fewer BME people than average.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, B. (1983) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
Back, L. (1996) New Ethnicities and Urban Culture — Racisms and Multiculture in Young Lives. London: UCL Press.
BBC (2005) Multiculturalism Poll, 10 August 2005. http://www.ipsos-mori.com/_assets/polls/2005/pdf/bbc050809.pdf (accessed on 8 June 2009).
Billig, M. (1991) Ideology, Rhetoric and Opinion. London: Sage.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006) Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Castles, S., Korac, M., Vasta, E. and Vertovec, S. (2002) ‘Integration: Mapping the Field’ Home Office Online Report 29/03.
Commission on Integration and Cohesion (CIC) (2007a) Our Shared Futures. Wetherby: DCLG.
Commission on Integration and Cohesion (CIC) (2007b) Public Attitudes Towards Cohesion and Integration. Wetherby: DCLG.
Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) (2007) Race Relations 2006: A Research Study. London: CRE. http://83.137.212.42/sitearchive/cre/downloads/ racerelations2006final.pdf (accessed on 8 June 2009).
Clarke, S. (2006) Theory and Practice: Psychoanalytic Sociology as Psycho-Social Studies. Sociology, 40(6), 1153–69.
Clarke, S. (2008) Psycho-Social Research: Relating Self, Identity and Otherness. In: S. Clarke, H. Hahn and P. Hoggett (eds) Object Relations and Social Relations: The Implications of the Relational Turn in Psychoanalysis. London: Karnac Books.
Cruddas, J., John, P., Lowles, N., Margetts, H., Rowland, D. and Weir, S. (2005) The Far-right in London: A Challenge for Democracy? York: Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.
Dorling, D. and Thomas, B. (2004) People and Places: A 2001 Census Atlas of the UK. Bristol: Policy Press.
Edwards, D. (2003) Analyzing Racial Discourse: The Discursive Psychology of Mind-World Relationships. In: H. Van Den Berg, M. Wetherell and H. Hootkoop-Steenstra (eds) Analyzing Race Talk: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Interview. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Frankenberg, R. (1994) White Women, Race Matters. Madison: University of Wiscons in Press.
Garner, S. (2007) Whiteness: An Introduction. London: Routledge.
Gilroy, P. (2004) After Empire: Melancholia or Convivial Culture? London: Routledge.
Hussain, Y. and Bagguley, P. (2005) Citizenship, Ethnicity and Identity: British Pakistanis after the 2001 ‘Riots’. Sociology, 39(3), 407–25.
John, P., Margetts, H., Rowland, D. and Weir, S. (2006) The BNP: The Roots of Its Appeal. Democratic Audit: University of Essex.
Lamont, M. (2000) The Dignity of Working Men. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lewis, M. (2005) Asylum: Understanding Public Attitudes. London: Institute for Public Policy Research.
Massey, D. and Denton, N. (1994) American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the American Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
McLaren, L. and Johnson, M. (2007) Resources, Group Conflict and Symbols: Explaining Anti-Immigration Hostility in Britain. Political Studies, 55, 709–24.
Phillips, D. (2006) Parallel Lives? Challenging Discourses of British Muslim Self-Segregation. Environment and Planning: Society and Space, 24(1), 25–40.
Reay, D., Hollingworth, S., Williams, K., Crozier, G., Jamieson, F., James, D. and Beedell, P. (2007) ‘A Darker Shade of Pale?’: Whiteness, the Middle Classes and Multi-Ethnic Inner City Schooling. Sociology, 41(6), 1041–60.
Russell, B. (2008) Harman in ‘Class War’ Row after TUC Speech. Independent, 11 September 2008. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/harman-in-class-war-row-after-tuc-speech-925571.htm1 (accessed on 8 June 2009).
Simpson, L. (2004) Statistics of Racial Segregation: Measures, Evidence and Policy. Urban Studies, 41(3), 661–81.
Skeggs, B. (2004) Class, Culture, Self London: Routledge.
Skeggs, B. and Wood, H. (2008) Spectacular Morality: ‘Reality’ Television, Individualisation and the Re-making of the Working Class. In: D. Hesmondhalgh and J. Toynbee (eds) Media and Social Theory. London: Routledge. pp. 177–93.
Tyler, I. (2008) ‘Chav Mum Chav Scum’: Class Disgust in Contemporary Britain. Feminist Media Studies, 8(1), 17–34.
YouGov (2007) Immigration. http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/pressReleases/ 01-November-2007#164 (accessed on 8 June 2009).
YouGov (2004) Attitudes to Immigration. http://www.yougov.co.uk/extranets/ ygarchives/content/pdf/DBD040101004.pdf (accessed on 8 June 2009).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2009 Simon Clarke, Steve Garner and Rosie Gilmour
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Clarke, S., Garner, S., Gilmour, R. (2009). Imagining the ‘Other’/Figuring Encounter: White English Middle-Class and Working-Class Identifications. In: Wetherell, M. (eds) Identity in the 21st Century. Identity Studies in the Social Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245662_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245662_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-36881-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-24566-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)