Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Ethnicity and racism: contradictions and realities

I picked up a claim the other day that the standard survey question (eg in the Place Survey) "to which of these groups do you consider you belong...?" obliges people to classify themselves in racist terms. I think this may be as much about instinctive resistance to being pigeonholed (a sentiment with which I have much sympathy) as it is about confusion between ethnic categorisation and racism. But I could be wrong.

Racism is crackling away in this country as our politicians (well, some of them) grapple with unfamiliar pre-election tensions, amid predictions of extremist opportunism in the gloomy economic climate. I've just started a piece of work helping my colleague Alison Gilchrist prepare a literature review on 'race inequalities,' which concentrates the mind thoroughly. The volume of practice-related material published in the last few years suggests that the problem hasn't gone away, and may indeed have got worse.

Then yesterday I was in Luton on a study visit, and a woman stood up and said how delighted she had been to come to a country where there is so much tolerance, acceptance and understanding of diversity. She had come to England as a refugee from Bosnia in 1992.

The discussion dwelt for a moment on the claim of emerging extremism in white nationalist and muslim groups, and she was asked whether she felt that a conflict comparable to the Bosnian war could break out here. The day before war broke out, she said, it would never have occurred to her or her family that it might. The eruption of 'irrational' violence may have its prominent history in the region, but I suspect it's natural to live in denial of that, and terrifying to find suddenly that your neighbour wants to kill you for reasons that are rational to them but not to you.

16 Mar 2010 09:50:33 | Cohesion and diversity

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Co-delivery sir? Certainly, which kind would you like? The other day I posted a note about co-delivery, making an aside about policing. Soon afterwards, looking for something else of course, I came across this short 2009 paper by Tony Bovaird and Elke Loeffler, on 'user and community co-production of public services', published by the Third Sector Research Centre. They report survey and focus group research in five European countries, looking at the (co-)production of community safety, the local environment, and public health. The ranking is revealing: crime reporting, and most aspects of crime prevention, clearly rank lowest, even though the top indicator is 'take care to lock doors and windows'. Bovaird and Loeffler conclude that people are most willing to make a contribution to public services 'when it involves them in relatively little effort and when they do not have to work closely with other citizens or staff or professionals in the government.' Reassuringly, the researchers do not see this as beyond the influence of policy: 'the behaviour of citizens is more likely to give rise to individual co-production, unless encouragement is given to mechanisms which lead to more collective co-production. The research has suggested the possibility that third sector intermediaries and that internet-enabled technologies are likely to fulfil the requirements which make collective co-production easier and more likely.' (Emphasis added) That last sentence combines two long-held concerns of mine - the first (third sector intermediaries) being a community development credo and obviously encompassing street reps, for example; the second being precisely the argument that Hugh Flouch and I have been making about neighbourhood online networks. We're hoping that we can confirm it convincingly in our current research.
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Helping with enquiries An hour after posting here a few thoughts about racism, I was out for a run in the sun and stopped by white van man. 'Do you know of any gypsy sites round here?' he asked. His mate peered at me from the wheel. When you're moving at reasonable pace and the heart-rate is around 90% of max, it's hard to stop suddenly and reflect on such an odd situation in a country lane. I noticed the sign on the side of the van, suggesting they were building or engineering contractors. My breath-catching pause gave him the chance to explain: 'We've had some stuff gone missing. They've probably stolen it.' Unfortunately I'm a compulsive information-sharer. It's incurable. If I'd had the knowledge they sought, I have to admit that in that situation I would probably have divulged it. Perhaps harmlessly, and anyway the council website will probably tell them. But I genuinely didn't know, it's years since any of the local sites were used, as far as I'm aware. I trotted on, with distaste for the collusive presumption in the accusation. And struck by the fact that twice - at the beginning and end of the conversation - they apologised for having stopped me, which is more courteous than is usual.

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