Blacks and Britannity

This title was first published in 2001: Featuring original research concerning young African-Caribbeans in Birmingham, this book addresses complex issues of urban violence and insecurity, racism and discrimination, alienation, resistance and social networks. Employing the methodology of sociological intervention developed by Alain Touraine, the book explores the experiences of a group of young people who are simultaneously presumed to be victims and perpetrators of violence. It examines their relationship to this violence, its meanings for and effects upon them, how they constitute themselves as social actors and subjects, and their capacity for action. The book also addresses the fact that ethnic monitoring and multicultural policies place the question of ethnicity on the British social and political agenda alongside issues of racism and discrimination. Exploring both the perceived and personally experienced position of young people within this context, it sheds important new light upon processes of group identification and action.