1. The rural context of racism
Nathan Kerrigan

2. Aims of the talk
To be critical of current literature on ‘rural racism’ which sees racism as a form of hate towards the perceived difference of the victim (i.e. colour)
To identify that the constructions of ‘race’ in rural areas are built into ‘fitting into’ or following the countryside ideology
‘Rural racism’ can operate in a ‘colourblind’ way – expressed through the informal social controls of protecting rural identity

3. Current Literature The rural context of racism
Ingrid Pollard (1989) – ‘Pastoral Interludes’
Jay (1992) – ‘Keep Them in Birmingham’
Follow up studies – Derbyshire (1994), Nizhar (1995) & De Lima (2001)
‘Rural racism’ fell out of favour during the mid 1990s but saw a resurgence of interest in criminology in the early-2000s.
Chakraborti and Garland (2004)
Neal (2009)
Plastow (2011)

4. Hate & Hate Crime
Hate
‘Hate is the prejudicial beliefs and attitudes that one social group has towards one or more large categorisation of people, with desires to oppress those people’ (Perry 2009: 159)
produces a ‘us and them’ process
Purification of the countryside – ‘all those white, heterosexual abled-bodied men who are sound in mind and spirit’ (Bhattacharryya 1999: 28)
Hate Crime
High level forms of harassment (physical violence, property damage, etc)
‘They threw a condom through [the] window. We sent their mother a solicitor’s letter. It means she never comes anymore and she has told all the neighbourhood not to come here for food...Windows have been broken and the insurance won’t pay anymore...I’m stressed, I can’t sleep. We are selling up and going after 15 years’ (Derbyshire 1994: 32)
We sometimes get random acts of violence given to us. We've had a mate that's been glassed in the pub and he's been blinded in one eye. I've had my run ins with someone that's tried to stab me, do you know what I mean, but I think that's all part and parcel of it (Chakraborti 2007: 78)
Low level forms of harassment (name calling, staring, etc)
‘Children are the worst. They say so many rude words to you. ‘You fucking foreigner’...You go and talk to their parents. They don’t take it seriously. They laugh at you or say the same thing...People leave without paying. Do they do that to the English?... (Derbyshire 1994: 32)

5. The Continuum of Racism
Essentialist views of Racism (derived from discrimination of the perceived difference of the victim)
‘racism’
Constructionist views of racism (derived from the structural ordering of subordinate ethnic/racial identity)

6. Conceptualising ‘race’/countryside ideology
Duality of Racism
People do the defining of racism
Based on a process of structuration – ‘people in interaction use the rules and resources that constitute social structure in their day-to-day routines in contexts of co-presence, and in so doing; they reproduce these rules and resources as structure...’ (Turner 1991:521)

7. Conceptualising ‘race’/countryside ideology
Rules & Resources
Rules (structure) are the ‘procedures of action...techniques or generalisble procedures applied in the enactment and reproduction of social practices...(which are) at the very core of that “knowledgeability” which specifically characterises human agents’ (Giddens 1984: 21)
practices of the countryside – conviviality, dense social networks, homogeneous attitudes and values
Resources (agency) are rules which get ‘locked into the production and reproduction of institutionalised practices over time and space’ (Giddens 1984:22)
Rooted on people’s practical consciousness - seen as the ‘natural order of things’
Produces moral boundaries where racism derives from the exclusionary practices of what the countryside is supposed to be.

8. Conceptualising ‘race’/countryside ideology
Power
Traditionally, power used to justify and rationalise subordinate position of minority ethnic groups and superiority of dominant social group
However,
‘means for getting things done and, as such, is directly implied in human action’ (Giddens 1984: 293)
the dominant social group's 'ability to 'structure' the ‘racial rules’ of the locality, and to be able to resist the 'racial structuring' capabilities of ‘outsiders’ (Farrall and Bowling 1999: 256).

9. Introducing Bricking Small rural town in the south of England
Rationale
Ongoing change & development
Urbanisation
Population growth and diversity

10. Reflexive Account of the Research Process
Peacemarsh
Bay
The Vale
Historical Town Centre
Medieval Suburb
19th Century Industrial Expansion
The Commons

11. Methodological Approach
Ethnography
Provided the opportunity to examine social processes, interactions, and influences on people’s behaviour within the research setting which other methods, such as surveys and questionnaires, are unlikely to achieve.
Ethnography also provides the greatest potential for accessing explanations of behaviour which, lie within the practical consciousness of actors and which are, therefore, less likely to be discursive.
Methods
In-depth Interviews – used as a means to capture discursive social activities
My final sample of residents comprises of twenty-four interviews: 9 lifelong residents ranging in age from late fifties to early eighties; 7 ethnic residents, aged from mid-thirties to early seventies; and, 8 residents of British decent who had moved into Brickington ranging in age from mid-teens to late fifties.
Observations & Participant Observations- used as a mean to explore ‘the practical consciousness’ of people in the setting
Places where I was an observer & a participant observer included: -
The local carnival
Committee meetings
The High Street and local cafes
Around the housing developments

12. Threats to local identity
Social change = sense of anxiety
Local anxieties about threat of urbanisation
Steven: ...I would definitely say it’s changed. I mean when I lived here as a child there were only 2,500 residents and the community atmosphere. But, because of supermarket chains and new housing developments, to me and other residents, it’s lost its rural charm and productivity. There’s no local cattle markets or anything like that anymore. Most of the farmers round ‘ere find it hard to make any sort of profit. What this change in the town has done is brought in families, and I don’t want to seem offensive, from different cultural backgrounds and I think this has downgraded the rural feel of the town.
Danielle: Brickington has changed and it has changed massively. Brickington was a lot different when I was growing up. Everybody knew everybody and so everybody knew who I was and so I couldn’t do anything without being taken back to my parents. So from that aspect it’s changed; you can’t really get to know everybody anymore as you use to. The population has doubled and there are a lot more new residents than there was when I was young.
The erosion of local character (architecture)
Kris: Brickington was once a small village, town where the majority of buildings and houses were red brick or locally made stone. Now, with the rise of population and increase in housing developments you have buildings and houses that look completely out of character. I mean the newer housing development have homes made from white concrete next to ones made from yellow stone so the design and look of those has definitely changed. And with government plans to build another 1500 homes here it will get worse; the identity of the place (whatever’s left) will be erased. It also takes away this sense of rurality and Englishness about the place. Traditionally, English country homes all looked similar and in a way promoted an idea of what being English was, and that was no different in Brickington. Now though, you’ve got so many out of character buildings it doesn’t reflect this’.

13. Threats to local identity cont’d
Influx of service industry
Kris: ‘before the overspill from London we had independent retailers, bakers, butchers all on the High Street and it was thriving. The population surges and people move in so places like Waitrose buy land and open. And because these people from London and other newcomers see Waitrose and recognise it they’ll go there. This has had an huge impact because local business can’t afford to run a shop anymore and it’s a pity because rural life is suppose to be about individualism of the High Street now, we are getting to look more and more like everywhere else’.
Geographical Mobility
Deborah: There isn’t a great racial mix within Brickington, but having stores like Asda have brought more ethnic minorities into the town. For instance, I did see one black lady coming out of the Lidl once. I turned to my friend June and said “There’s a black woman in Brickington”. But we ‘traditional folk’ of the town don’t mean it it’s just because she was an unusual face. And because she was the only one, or she felt like the only one she stuck out more.’
Sense of loss

14. Resistance to change & informal social control
Resistance to change – active & passive controls used to maintain social order
Active controls – actions used by residents/citizens to purity ‘rurality’ (discursive consciousness)
Passive controls – norms, customs & traditions of community/nation produced by the socio-spatial organisation of place (practical consciousness)
Routines
Emerges from critical situations
provides ontological security
Coping strategy towards social change - adapting ways of doing

15. Active Controls & Little Poland
Local residents used their spatial power to protect their identity of the High Street
Little Poland
Kara – a Polish resident – owned Little Poland, a specialist Polish food shop on the High Street
Kara: 'the shop did really well in its first year in Brickington’. ‘Brickington had a big Polish community so I had tonnes of customers coming in and wanting to buy groceries. Several people became regulars and I became very familiar with them. I enjoyed it’
Kara: ‘After eighteen months most of my “regulars” decided to leave Brickington and go back to Poland’; ‘Now most people that walk past the shop are local people...They’d see my shop, notice its selling ethnic food, and just keep walking. I became really upset because I wasn’t getting any customers’.

16. Active Controls & Little Poland cont’d
Kara ‘I had a meeting the other day, with the planning committee. As part of the plan I’m allowing an opinion on the High Street as a resident of Brickington. I was shocked with their idea of moving Little Poland to the alley behind (the Jewellers). I almost broke down into tears. I asked why and all they said was that there’s plans for a cake shop. I should have put my foot down but I was too upset’.

17. Active Controls & Little Poland cont’d
Double-edged word - removal for economic reasons
‘invisiblising difference’ (Cloke 2004: 33)

18. Passive controls & the carnival
Context
Annual event in Brickington (every October)
Held in the Historic Town Centre
Purpose to celebrate local life and ‘Brickingtoness’

19. Passive controls & the carnival
Diagram of Carnival

20. Passive controls & the carnival
The socio-spatial organisation of the carnival
The Spatial
Procession of floats = symbolic identity
Carnival Committee: decisions as to what goes into the procession = ‘gatekeepers’ to local identity
The Social

21. Passive controls, the carnival & racism
The normative processes of identity expressed in the pageantry of the carnival created structural controls
Kara: ‘Brickington’s identity is very strong, particularly around the time of the carnival. I generally feel uncomfortable though during the carnival. Residents like to celebrate and praise the town, which is fantastic but the organisers create these specific floats that demonstrate a local history...I can’t relate to that’
Kara: ‘I tend to stay at home whilst the carnival’s on nowadays. I went for the first couple of years when I first arrived in Brickington but year after year it’s the same thing. You’ll have some floats that represent local industry, some that represent the uniqueness of its buildings, and so on. It made me feel unwelcomed when I went, not because I was not welcome to watch, it was just because I didn’t understand the point of celebrating specific aspects of local life’

22. Passive controls, the carnival & racism cont’d
Who was included/organised the carnival, and its philosophy created community controls.
Dan: ‘One of the things I would really like to do in help create a float for the carnival parade. I never get asked to contribute and I think the reason is that the majority of people who do get offered have lived in the town for their entire life, and so they’ve made these close bonds with the people who organise the carnival. Whereas I’m from Poland and therefore people will probably think I wouldn’t want to help’.

23. Summary Rural racism goes beyond discourses of hate and hostility
Social change plays central role in production of racism in rural areas as it feeds into wider fears of loss of rural identity.
Racism derived from the routine activities of people and not overtly expressed through hostile forms of victimisation.