SPRU - Queens anniversary prize lecture

Posted on 10 October 2011

Social policy in context - reflections on ethnicity, religion and social policy

Professor Waqar Ahmad - from the School of Health and Social Sciences, Middlesex University - link to further information

Tuesday 1st November, 2011, 6.15 - 7.15pm, ARRC Auditorium A/RC/014.

There will be a drinks reception after the lecture which is supported by the University of York, Distinguished Visitors Fund. To attend the lecture please follow this link and fill in the form with your details.

Abstract

British social policy has a chequered history in relation to Britain’s minority ethnic communities. Minority ethnic and religious groups have variously been seen through the lenses of colour, ethnic culture, race and latterly religion. Numbers of non-White minority groups and the extent of ethnic diversity have been regarded as a threat to British way of life and British values, against a notion of ‘Britishness’ defined in exclusive terms with racist undertones. Experiences of poverty, poor housing, racial and religious intolerance have often been underplayed with both problems and solutions to the exclusion of ethnic and religious minorities often located, by policy makers, in these communities’ biological make up, cultures or religions. This is most evident in the discourse around Britain’s Muslims, increasingly perceived as a threat to community cohesion and social integration, with the state’s relationship to the Muslim communities becoming predominantly articulated through the discourse of security. This discourse underplays the diversity within the Muslim community and disregards how Britain’s Muslims are making social and political spaces for themselves, thus transforming themselves and the British society. This paper will explore social policy’s difficult relationship with ethnic and religious diversity and highlight some challenges for the discipline.