Full Description
This book offers a new sociological approach to the slippery and contested concept of "community" Here, 'community is understood not as a 'thing' or even as a place, but as a radical social imaginary, a metaphor which guides people's struggle to live in a society which offers justice, equality and the absence of racialised conflict. Preface; This book represents a labour of love and this Preface is a thank-you to all those who have made it possible. It started in 1970 when I moved to Spencer Place, in Chapeltown, while a third-year student at Leeds University. Alan Dawe, Bob Towler and Dennis Warwick made sociology seem worthwhile, and almost commensurate with my revolutionary aspirations. John Rex's work, and his kind words, inspired me to engage in a study of a multi-ethnic inner city. Bob got me a SSRC grant (1972-4) during which I started research-and he smiled indulgently when I gave it up, having concluded that sociology was a bourgeois deviation. I had realised, as well, that I could learn little that was worth saying about Chapeltown within the period of a research grant. As this book shows, a notion like 'the people of Chapeltown' is too woolly for sociology-but the Preface claims the privileges of everyday life. It is 'the people of Chapeltown' who have to be thanked most of all: without the affection and help from innumerable people this book would never have materialised. Many of those who have criticised me have contributed to my self-knowledge and sociological understanding, and I thank them, too. People who were kind enough to allow me to record interviews are named in the list of primary sources. Some of them, and many others to whom I am indebted, are referred to in the text. Pseudonyms have been used where the material is personally sensitive. I hope that this book-despite its jargon and its fairly neutral tone of voice-betrays my personal, political support for the extraordinary struggles of ordinary people to realise their dream of a better life for all, to attain an earthly paradise. I also hope that it is used by those who wish to develop and extend those struggles in Chapeltown, and elsewhere. That, for me, would justify this enterprise.
Contents
List of maps and tables xi; Foreword xiii; Preface xv; Chapter 1 1; Introduction: the aims of this study; Chapter 2 9; Chapeltown: maps and demographics; Introduction: maps and impressions; Buildings and open space: a brief history; Leeds: ethnic population statistics; Chapeltown: population statistics; Occupation and lifestyle; Ethnic segmentation and 'community' institutions in Chapeltown; Caribbean groups; South Asians; White populations; Conclusion; Chapter 3 47; 'We did not come alive in Britain': A brief history of migration to Chapeltown; Introduction; The migration from the Caribbean; The migrations from South Asia and East Africa; Indian (Sikh) settlement; Pakistani (Muslim) settlement; Bangladeshi (Muslim) settlement; Conclusion; Chapter 4 79; The concept of community; Three dimensions of 'actual community'; 1) Territory and its (non) representation; 2) Theorising the social: conceptualising social relationships; Marx: alienation and the social; Weber: types of social relationship; Modern sociology: relationships in 'mass society'; 3) The politics of 'community': values and goals; Community as a social imaginary; Beyond 'community studies': a typology of subjective orientations; Chapter 5 127; Chapeltown: territory and the social construction of space; Introduction; Maps and the sociology of space; The discursive construction of space and territory in Chapeltown; Early modern settlers; Jewish settlers: discourses of the (white) Other; Black settlers: the sexualised and racialised discourse of hell; The economic construction of Chapeltown's social space; Conclusion; Chapter 6 161; Constructing 'community': forming social movements, 1972-75; The urban social movement thesis; Caribbean-led mobilisations in the early 1970s; The Chapeltown Parents Action Group: 'community' as racialised reform; The West Indian Afro Brotherhood: 'community' as racialised reform; Indian-led action in the early 1970s. The Sikhs: 'community' as religious reform; White and multi-cultural politics in Chapeltown in the 1970s; The Chapeltown Community Association 1971 - 3: 'community' as reform (inter-ethnic); The CCA 1973 - 5: 'community' as anti-racist socialism; The CCA: an urban social movement?; Ethnic identities; Conclusion: the complexities of 'community' action; Chapter 7 207; Violence and the competing politics of 'community', 1975-81; Introduction; Reggae and Rastafarianism: violence and redemption; The proto-politics of Bonfire Night 1975; The 1981 rebellion: social movements and the politics of violence; Conclusion; Chapter 8 241; Segmenting 'community': the decline of the social movements, 1981-97; Introduction; The 1980s: processes of individualisation and ethnic segmentation; The Harehills and Chapeltown Liaison Committee; Professionalisation and individualisation; Arguing for ethnic unity; Ethnic segmentation
