Introduction

This will be the first of two chapters based on research conducted in three different cities in England. There are two substantive points that have been made so far in this book: first, there has been a topdown framing of the white working class as being antagonistic to multiculturalism. (Haylett, 2001; Sveinsson, 2009; Rhodes, 2010; Beider, 2014); and, second, the voice of the white working class has not been directly heard, being mediated instead through politicians and the media, leading to a negative construction (see Murray, 1996; see also The White Season and Till Death Us Do Part). In addressing these frames and in reconfiguring the representation of white working-class communities in the debates on multiculturalism and social change, it is important to create a space for their perspectives. Communities that view themselves as lacking voice, whether real or perceived, need to be given a platform in order to engage and be challenged on issues of multiculturalism and change.

This and the following chapter are based on two research projects undertaken sequentially. The first of these was supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), with fieldwork undertaken between July 2009 and March 2011. The rationale was to gain views on community cohesion and social change from white working-class communities, who had been marginalised in the discussion of these subjects. It has already been noted that white working-class communities had been the subject of policy frames addressing disadvantage and exclusion, such as the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal launched by the Labour government in 2000 (DCLG, 2001).Varying levels of alarm about this segment of society being outside of mainstream norms was well-established by commentators (Murray, 1996) and also in the media (Sveinsson, 2009). Despite the white working class being active participants in key events on race relations in the post-1945 period, including the Notting Hill riots in 1958, the Smethwick election result in 1964, Powell's ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968 and the Northern riots in 2001, they were either absent or marginal in government publications. For example, in the report of the aforementioned riots of 2001, the white working class were relegated to secondary actors behind the rush to put forward the thesis of entrenched racial segregation leading to ‘parallel lives’ (Garner, 2007).