Black Police Associations and the police occupational culture

In recent years, Black Police Associations (BPAs) have become key forces of change within the police service, involved in minority ethnic recruitment and retention initiatives, working closely with senior management, and also serving as mechanisms of support minority ethnic constabulary members and recruits. Most police services in England and Wales now have an officially recognised BPA, making it essential to consider the effect these groups have on the police occupational culture. Using data from our recent research project on BPAs, we explore issues such as the decreasing importance of rank and grading in the police culture; whether a parallel, ‘black’ occupational culture is emerging alongside the traditional ‘white’ one; the indirect influence BPAs have had as part of a wider process of change and the interplay between changing individuals and changing the institution as a whole

The Links Between Collective Bargaining and Equaliy

Working paper by Adelle Blackett and Colleen Sheppard, prepared for the ILO, analyzes the links between collective bargaining and equaliy at international level and addresses the efforts to monitor and regulate the right of association and collective bargaining

Rearticulating the case for minority language rights

While advocacy of minority language rights (MLR) has become well established in sociolinguistics, language policy and planning and the wider human rights literature, it has also come under increased criticism in recent times for a number of key limitations. In this paper, I address directly three current key criticisms of the MLR movement. The first is a perceived tendency towards essentialism in articulations of language rights. The second is the apparent utopianism and artificiality of 'reversing language shift' in the face of wider social and political 'realities'. And the third is that the individual mobility of minority-language speakers is far better served by shifting to a majority language. While acknowledging the perspicacity of some of these arguments, I aim to rearticulate a defence of minority language rights that effectively addresses these key concerns. This requires, however, a sociohistorical/sociopolitical rather than a biological/ecological analysis of MLR. In addition, I will argue that a sociohistorical/sociopolitical defence of MLR can problematise the positions often adopted by minority language rights' critics themselves, particularly those who defend majoritarian forms of linguistic essentialism and those who sever the instrumental/identity aspects of language. Implications for language policy and planning will also be discussed

Desire to belong : contesting the view of Irish travellers as Deleuzian and Guattarian nomads

In my thesis I have discussed whether Irish Travellers could be considered to be Nomads in a way that French theorists Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari have developed the concept. Nomads in this context challenge and object the normative order set by the state and the mainstream society. My research is constructed around the concept of ethnicity and namely what Irish Travellers hope to gain with the ethnic status and how this relates to the ways how Travellers are controlled by the state. As a primary material I have used a report made by a Traveller support group which discusses the challenges which Irish Travellers are facing in today’s Ireland and as a method I have used critical discourse analysis. In my thesis I have discussed how physical nomadism plays a key role constructing Traveller identity and how physical nomadism relates to Deleuze's and Guattari's ideas about Nomadism. According to my findings Irish Travellers have a strong desire to be accepted by the mainstream society and to have an access to the resources controlled by the state. Irish Travellers want to be a part of the mainstream society hence keeping their own culture and be a part of the political process of the state. In the main chapters of my thesis I employ also other Deleuzian and Guattarian concepts like Faciality, Minority and Becoming in order to outline Travellers' relationship to Nomadism. The conclusion in my thesis is that Irish Travellers cannot be considered Deleuzian and Guattarian Nomads. I have based this argument on my findings that according to my primary material Travellers have a strong desire to be included to the structures of the state and be respected by the main society. These require that Irish Travellers follow the rules set by the state and the mainstream society. There is however a possibility for Travellers to change the system in the context of becoming; by challenging the normative order by entering the state structures and the mainstream society

Examining ‘Race’ in Health Research: the case for ‘listening’ to language

Health researchers must be constantly conscious of the contribution that they may or may not make to the politics of race through language. In order to unpack concepts such as multiculturalism race relations ethnic minority citizenship and so forth at the local level it is necessary to begin to understand concepts of race and racism in a global context through the shifting ontological epistemological and methodological frameworks as they relate to the study of race and racism. This paper unpacks these processes and suggests ways forward for better understanding of the language game and concepts of race in health research. To accomplish this language communication and knowledge transfer in a post-modern era are explored. The 'cookbook' approach to diversity is criticised. A relationship-centred framework is suggested as an alternative with an exploration of the meaning of the terms ethnicity and race constructed dialogically within communities. The concept of meaning itself is discussed as a social and political process constructed through language in health interfaces and power relationships

Understanding Concerns about Community Relations in Kirklees

This study examined attitudes and dispositions towards greater ethnic and religious diversity, as well as community relations more generally, among residents of predominantly white British neighbourhoods. It also examined people’s attitudes and responses to anti-minority protest by groups like the English Defence League (EDL) and towards cohesion policy and practices. A mixed methods design was used combining a (non-representative) household survey (n=434) in four selected research sites (three areas in north Kirklees, one area in south Kirklees) with six key informant interviews (across key institutions) and fifteen focus group discussions (across age-ranges and localities) with local peopl

The trouble with sectarianism

This chapter attempts to situate the moral panic around sectarianism in Scotland in wider relations of social power. Sectarianism valorizes symbolic distinction and separation as prohibitions against social and ideological promiscuity and contamination between established and outsider groups (Weber, 1946). Sectarianism in this sense has been eroded by widening circles of identification in Scotland. Sectarianism today takes the form of a civilising offensive mobilised by the legitimate sources of symbolic nomination to regulate and discipline outsiders defined by a chronic maladaptation to the civilising canopy of the national habitus in Scotland

Addressing ethnicity in social care research

This article surveys recent developments in relation to the dimensions of ethnicity and ethnicdisadvantage in social policy research and practice, with a focus on social care. While therehas been limited increase in attention to ethnicity within general policy discussion andincreasing sophistication within specialist debates, advances in theory and methodology havelargely failed to penetrate the research mainstream, let alone policy or practice. This is along-standing problem. We advocate more focussed consideration of ethnicity and ethnicdisadvantage at all levels. Failure to do so creates the risk of social policy research being leftbehind in understanding rapid changes in ethnic minority demographics and patterns of migration, with increasing disadvantage to minorities