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Book Cover
Book
Author Baumann, Gerd, 1953-

Title Contesting culture : discourses of identity in multi-ethnic London / Gerd Baumann
Published Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  305.8009421 Bau/Ccd  AVAILABLE
Description xiii, 215 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 23 cm
Series Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ; 100
Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology ; 100
Contents 1. Introduction: the process of research -- 2. The argument: identifying a dominant discourse. The reification of culture. The discourse of 'community' on the basis of ethnicity. The dominant discourse in Britain. Presentation of the data -- 3. A shared Southall culture? 'Town': a cultivated space. Ethnic distinctions, economic commonalities. Some local history: migration and the 'white backlash', community building and 'the Southall Riots'. Local politics as community competition -- 4. The dominant discourse applied: 'self-evident' communities of culture. On Sikhs: the 'majority community'. On Hindus: cultural cachet. On Muslims: marginalized as a community. On Afro-Caribbeans: community across island cultures. On Whites: Irish without community, English without culture? On youth: culture consciousness among children -- 5. The dominant discourse denied: community as creation, culture as process. Sikhs and the creation of caste communities
Hindus and the culture of encompassment. Muslims and the multi-cultural community of Islam. Afro-Caribbeans and four approaches to 'finding' culture. Whites and three strategies in the absence of community -- 6. Culture and community as terms of cultural contestation. On youth: assessing and discovering an Asian culture. Questioning Asian culture: socialist and feminist networks. Contesting political community: 'Are Asians Black?'. Questioning religious community: interfaith networks. Contesting religious community: convergence, encompassment, and 'multi-cultural' equality. Summary of the argument. The community patterning of the demotic discourse. The local persistence of the dominant discourse. The relationship between dominant and demotic discourse. The question of rights
Summary In a vivid, ethnographic account of immigrant groups living in West London, the author breaks with the conventional discourse of community studies to explore their mutual interaction. By treating Southall--the most densely populated, multi-ethnic ghetto in the London area--as a social field, he considers how people from different backgrounds come to terms with one another and with the dominant, host culture, while at the same time affirming their own ethnic distinctiveness. [publisher]
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-211) and index
Notes Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology no:100
Subject Community life -- England -- London.
Community life -- England -- Southall (London)
Ethnic neighborhoods -- England -- Southall (London)
Ethnic neighborhoods -- England -- London.
Ethnicity -- England -- London.
Ethnicity -- England -- Southall (London)
Multiculturalism -- England -- London.
Multiculturalism -- England -- Southall (London)
SUBJECT Southall (London, England) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80113884 -- Ethnic relations. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00005646
Southall (London, England) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80113884 -- Race relations. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00007552
Southall (London, England) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80113884 -- Social conditions. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001008850
LC no. 95034576
ISBN 0521554829 (hc)
052155554X (pb)