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National lives, local voices: boundaries, hierarchies and possibilities of belonging

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posted on 2023-06-09, 12:23 authored by Amy Clarke
This thesis is about the boundaries that surround, and hierarchies that structure, Britain’s national community. In contrast to existing work, the research investigates boundaries and hierarchies of belonging through in-depth qualitative enquiry of their (re)production among people for whom national identity is broadly taken-for-granted and unquestioned, that is, Britain’s white middleclasses. How do they imagine Britain as a nation and national community? How do they understand and recognise other people as British (or not), and as belonging (or not) in and/or to Britain? And how do they position differently racialised people in relation to boundaries and hierarchies of belonging? The thesis draws on data collected over fifteen months in the suburbs of North East London and West Essex, including successive qualitative interviews conducted with twenty-six local residents. It contributes to migration geographies by revealing the narrative power of the white middle-classes in processes of integration and belonging, while also resisting the homogenisation of this group through exploration of some of its diversity. The thesis includes chapters on the extent to which Britain is imagined as a plural nation, on participants’ narratives of local ethnic diversity, everyday interaction and encounter, on markers of belonging and economies of recognition, and on the role of historical imaginaries in reproducing nation. Overall, the thesis challenges the idea that people can integrate into society in the full and substantive way desired by governments. It provides empirical evidence of the normative whiteness of Britain’s core national imaginary and the markers of Britishness, as well as the significance of the past in shaping understandings of nation and belonging in the present. Meanwhile, by interrogating the national through the local, the research highlights the multi-scalar nature of belongings and adds a suburban perspective to what is a predominantly urban literature on multiculture.

History

File Version

  • Published version

Pages

218.0

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Theses

Qualification level

  • doctoral

Qualification name

  • phd

Language

  • eng

Institution

University of Sussex

Full text available

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-03-21

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