Event overview
Join us at the Centre for Urban and Community Research for a lunchtime talk by Professor Les Back (University of Glasgow).
In this lecture Les Back introduces some of the key arguments of the new book The Unfinished Politics of Race written with John Solomos, Kalbir Shukra and Michael Keith. The book is a product of their long-term collaboration on research over thirty-five years linked to questions about the changing politics of race, ethnicity, and migration in British society. It charts the history of the dynamics of racism and the struggles of minority communities in mainstream stream politics as well as in the alternative publics spheres of community that often transcend the specific localities in which they are situated. Les Back reflects on his own political formation in the early 1980s and his proximity to political black mobilisations for justice following the New Cross fire in 1981 where 14 young people were killed, its relation to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 and the Black Lives Matter movement today.
The talk also examines the ways during the 90s hostility towards asylum seekers and refugee were challenged within the cultural spheres of music making spheres. It argues that it is important to develop a radical attentiveness to these histories and also the localities and regions in which they unfolded be it in Birmingham or London or the coastal downs of the South East Coast. From the diversity of the England football team to the emergence of the most ethnically diverse Cabinet in Britain’s political history, the present moment remains hostage to Britain’s imperial past even in changed circumstances. From the ‘Windrush scandal’, where former colonial citizens and their children were deported after decades of residence, to the ‘hostile environment’ faced by refugees today, racism – as a scavenger ideology – orders and divides while shifting and changing form. The politics of race is unfinished because of this ongoing struggle between erasure and recognition, denial and activism, dominance and justice.
Les Back is Professor of Sociology at the University of Glasgow. Previously to this, he was Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths. His main fields of interest are the sociology of racism, migration, auditory culture, music and city life.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Nov 2023 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm |
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