White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism
White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism
The murder of Stephen Lawrence led to the widest review of institutional racism seen in the UK. Sections of the white working-class communities in south London near to the scene of the murder, however, displayed deep hostility to the equalities and multiculturalist practice of the local state and other agencies. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, this book relates these phenomena to the 'backlash' to multiculturalism evident during the 1990s in the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK and other European countries. It examines these within the unfolding social and political responses to race equalities in the UK and the USA from the 1960s to the present in the context of changes in social class and national political agendas. This book is unique in linking a detailed study of a community at a time of its critical importance to national debates over racism and multiculturalism, to historically wider international economic and social trends.
- Major, original contribution to contemporary debates about inequality and multiculturalism
- Explores the concept of a white backlash in an international context
- Based on original ethnographic research
Reviews & endorsements
"Hewitt provides a nuanced view of how the complexities of racial, class, and multicultural politics play out locally. Hewitt's theoretical apparatus ... provides extraordinary analytic purchase for disentangling the political salience of race and for understanding how competing narratives are generated and connected to various sites of power. This is clearly a must-read for scholars of racism and British politics, but those exploring migration, urban politics, political culture, and contentious politics in general will find much here of exceptional value. Given Hewitt's clear narrative and elegant prose, the book is also surprisingly accesible for advanced undergraduate courses in a manner atypical of many substantive theoretical contributions."
Perspectives on Politics, Jillian Schwedler, University of Maryland
"The book makes a significant contribution to understanding the complexities of cultural diversity in the industrial nations today and should be widely consulted." - Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare
Product details
September 2005Adobe eBook Reader
9780511123757
0 pages
0kg
2 maps
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Politics and 'backlash' on the large stage
- 3. Greenwich and its racial murders
- 4. Narrative, counter-narrative and the boundaries of legitimate discourse
- 5. Residence and resistance
- the case of the Eltham Tenants Forum
- 6. 'Race' and 'Culture' in education: from neighbourhood schools to the multicultural highway
- 7. Backlash, multicultural politics and the global turbine.
