Over the last twenty years there has been growing evidence of a distinct Islamic identity emerging from within the Western world, an identity that has been portrayed as incompatible with Western ideals. This thesis is based on a small-scale qualitative study of the reality of this identity, as experienced by twenty-three South Asian Muslims living in the south of England, and the impact on notions of citizenship and the rights and obligations this infers. The thesis contrasts Western notions of citizenship with Islamic thinking. It recognises that although there are points of convergence between the two, a fundamental difference remains. It is argued, where Western notions of citizenship give priority to individual sovereignty, Islamic notions place sovereignty in God and as such define citizenship as the relationship of the individual not to the state, but to God via the state. The thesis explores how this Islamic ideal is made relevant by South Asian Muslims living in Britain. Theoretically the thesis explores the way in which Muslim identity is universal, group centred and individual. It is argued that, despite differences, as humans we do share some universally shared values that give us a 'cornman human identity'. However these shared values are culturally embedded and experienced through distinct (albeit complex) 'cultural communities'. It is argued that just because people have, in certain circumstances, a group identity, it should not necessarily lead to the conclusion that everyone in that group will experience that identity in the same way. As such identity is simultaneously individual. Results of the research suggest that for South Asian Muslims of Britain assimilation is impossible and largely undesirable. However, they suggest that this does not mean that most Muslims do not want to be an 'integrated' aspect of British life. However integration does not mean 'being the same as'. There is a strong recognition that Muslims are different and there is to a large extent a desire for this difference to be maintained. Final analysis, of the data generated, indicates that there are four ideal typical strategies employed by British Muslims in making sense of their faith in the British context. These are identified as: That of 'Lapsed'/ambivalent Muslims where Islam is deemed important in that is provides a 'moral code' by which to live life but is, in the main, relegated to the private sphere. That of Selective Muslims where being a Muslim is of importance but for whom Islam does not impact on their lives in any substantive way. That of 'Traditional' Muslims where being a Muslim is very important but of equal importance is the ethno-cultural similarities they have with other Muslims. That of Engaged Muslims where there is an active engagement with Islam and a conscientious effort to implement Islam in all aspects of life Three levels of engagement with British society are also identified (although it must be recognised engagement with Islam does not necessarily lead to (dis)engagement with citizenship/the public sphere): engagement, partial engagement and disengagement. The thesis recognises that a multiculturalist paradigm has encouraged difference to be seen as static and unchanging, rather then fluid and dynamic as it is in reality. In this context Muslims' desire to keep to their faith (even if it is variously expressed), and retain (certain) social differences can be misunderstood as an unwillingness to 'integrate'. An ethnic notion of citizenship has made it hard for Muslims to be equal citizens contributing to their sense of being an 'outsider'. This thesis argues for a more inclusive definition of citizenship that understands that citizens will have multiple loyalties and responsibilities. Essentialist notions of Islam have perpetuated the misconception of Muslims as different with no commonalties with majority society. This is at the expense of historically rooted social and economic deprivation, and continuing (albeit not as obvious) prejudice and discrimination that many Muslim communities experience.

This study investigates the ways in which parents' and teachers' experiences and representations mediate their child's mathematics learning as they make the transition between home and school to either a multiethnic or mainly white school. In particular, it examines if the forms of mediation they adopt can shed light on the academic success of the child in school mathematics. The focus on mathematics learning has been chosen for the study because of its relative neglect, until recent times, to be seen as a subject influenced by cultural representations. Furthermore, there are significant implications in the relative neglect of understanding the achievement of ethnic minority pupils in mathematics. The research was framed by Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Wenger's (1998) communities of practice to explore the construction of meaning, identity and representations of practice. The amalgam of Wenger's communities of practice with sociocultural theory provided three key theoretical facets: (i) multiple levels of understanding in the form of meaning, practice and identity, (ii) the scope to explore the social and cultural worlds of the learner and (iii) understanding the ways that past experiences impact on current practice. Three different forms of qualitative data collection were used within the context of an ethnographic approach: (i) investigations in the form of classroom observations, (ii) in-depth semi-structured interviews and (iii) a child identity task. Twenty-two parents, eight teachers and fifty-eight children took part in the interviews, which form the main part ofthe data analysis. Out ofthese fifty-eight children, twenty-seven undertook the child identity task. The research took place in three schools with different ethnic make-up: a multicultural school, a mainly white school and a predominantly South Asian school. Two year groups were chosen, year 2 (ages 6/7 years) and year 6 (10/11 years), balancing high and low achievers. This study has provided data, which suggests that the way parents and teachers mediate the child's learning involves more than representations of mathematics. In making meaning of the mathematical, they draw on wider representations of the educational world, which include aspects like child development, notions of achievement, past experiences and the child's projected futures. This complex picture emerged from studying the highly interwoven aspects ofthe construction of meaning, identity and representations of practice. Representations of learning can be borrowed from both communities, providing the ethnic minority pupil with the potential to create hybrid representations of learning as they make the transition between home and school, which may be attributed a cultural status within the home. Each social actor has the potential to borrow from the home or school community to a greater or lesser degree. lfthe gap between the shared representations of the home and school are large, then this increases the likelihood of difficulties for the child in transition. However, the data suggests that even if the cultural representations of the home are very different from the school, the identification of high achievement and the engagement in mathematical activity at home can still provide success in learning. From the school community perspective, classrooms were represented by the teacher informants as 'cultureless' in both the multi ethnic and mainly white school. For example, in the multicultural school the teachers felt that there were so many ethnicities that differences were not visible. In the mainly white school, there were so few ethnic minority children that teachers also struggled to identify issues of culture. In the predominantly South Asian school, issues surrounding culture were brought to the forefront of the teacher discourse. However, in many ethnic minority homes, parents described how culture was influential in mediating representations ofleaming. This has implications in the educational arena with respect to the teachers' understanding of the transitional process that ethnic minority children undergo and the levels of visibility that culture and ethnicity is given in the school community.

Historically, recruitment by the UK construction industry has been homogeneous, with a marked propensity for organisations to attract, recruit and select white nondisabled men. This makes construction the most white and male-dominated of all major industrial sectors. Previous research on women's and ethnic minorities' experiences within construction have shown that the industry reproduces a white male culture in which women and ethnic minorities experience marginalisation, discrimination, disempowerment, prejudice and 'glass ceilings' to their career progression. This, in turn, leads to vertical segregation within construction firms. Despite the under representation and underachievement of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people within the industry, little is known of the views and experiences of key construction industry stakeholders on workforce diversity and the potential impact that this has on promoting the diversity and equality agenda. Accordingly, this research makes a unique contribution by investigating diversity and equality from the perspective of employers, professional bodies, training organisations and industry policy forums to provide a more holistic understanding of why the industry has failed to diversify its workforce. The findings of the research develop existing theoretical perspectives on the underrepresentation and underachievement of women and ethnic minorities in the industry through an analysis of the cultural and institutional processes which shape the position of women and ethnic minorities. To achieve this, a primarily qualitative methodology was employed for the research in which stakeholder attitudes to workforce diversity were explored using in-depth semi structured interviews. The research also critically evaluated the industry's previous attempts to diversify its workforce using desk-top and case study research methods. Collectively, these investigations revealed the necessary challenges for policy makers to overcome in order to promote positive change within the industry. These included the existence of mutually reinforcing industry structures, customs and practices which systematically reflect and produce inequalities for underrepresented groups. Together, they undermine the delivery of diversity and equality policies and practices. On the basis of the research findings a framework of integrated diversity policy initiatives were developed. These address the need for both structural and cultural change within the sector and behavioural compliance in addition to attitudinal and cultural change. The efficacy of these measures was validated through a high level workshop in which leading industrialists and policy specialists debated and refined the key outcomes of the work. The resulting policy framework has been adopted by the Institution of Civil Engineers as their diversity and equality guidance document.

Education is development. It helps to create choices and opportunities for people, reduce the twin burdens of poverty and diseases, and give a stronger voice in society. For nations it creates a dynamic workforce and well-informed citizens able to compete and cooperate globally - opening doors to economic and social prosperity.This study examines how a small group of students coped under conditions of adversity. It follows in the tradition of a wide body of qualitative work that has investigated ethnic minorities and their educational experiences. Much of the existing work, however, focuses on merely describing thematically and/or conceptually, what goes on. This study aims to construct an integrated conceptual understanding of how a minority group engaged in the coping process. More specifically, this study seeks to develop a substantive theory that can help explain and predict human behaviour. Grounded theory methodology was used in aid of the theory development process (Glasser and Strauss, 1967). Put simply, grounded theory is an inductive methodology that attempts to understand action from the perspective of social actors (Brooks, 1998).To uncover the coping process, the Turangitukua students and their Hapu (sub tribe) in New Zealand are used as the main data source. Two other student groups were used for comparative purposes. Data was obtained by a number of means; including interviewing, focus groups, hui (meetings), and documentary analysis. The collected data was summarised and analysed over a two- year period.This study contributes to three areas of research. First, it adds to the small but growing body of work relating to Turangitukua hapu (sub-tribe) in New Zealand. Second, it contributes to research in the area of Maori and non-Maori relationships, especially work that focuses on interaction. And finally, it adds to the formal theoretical literature on indigenous educational settings and its management.

This thesis is the study of the relationship between individuals and communities in the context of racialised minorities in the United Kingdom. The research examines the ways in which individuals belonging to the Kashmiri community articulate and manifest 'Kashmyriat' in conditions of diaspora. Specifically, the research is an investigation of the core features of Kashmiri identity. These were selected as being identifications based on culture, religion and the territorial identification with the land of Kashmir, the nature of culture conflict between individuals and community and differences between generations of Kashmiris and the role of gender identity in 'Kashmyriat'. The central premise is that identity is constantly updated, multiple and redefined in relation to contextual changes through a process of enculturation. Results of the research suggest that culture, religion and territorial identification with the land of Kashmir are central core features of Kashmiri identity in Luton. The younger generation appear to be maintaining a distinct and separate identity based partly on shared culture, religion and terrirotial identification with the land of Kashmir with the older generation whilst they are redefining their identity in response to the contexts in which they have been born and brought up. Gender identities appear to be less significant as part of overall identity development. Theoretically the thesis is an exploration of identity and its relationship to cultural identity among migrants. In this thesis I rely on qualitative ethnographic work as well as the quantitative research methodology of Identity Structure Analysis (ISA) to try and draw a textured analysis of Kashmiri identity transformation in the wake of immigration to Luton. Using the notion of enculturation the thesis sets out to deepen and make this concept more academically rigorous. Enculturation is deployed as a means to understanding the process of identity transformation. Results of the research suggest that culture, religion and affiliation with the land of Kashmir. Whilst they share the first two with other South Asian ethnicised communities in the United Kingdom it appears that the territorial affiliation with the land of Kashmir which can be translated as political identity is currently their self-defined identity. This is marking the Kashmiris as a national community whose individuals and collectivities centre their identity on 'Kashmyriat'.

This cultural research explores the relation between racial representation and emotions/affects as part of the struggle for racial minorities’ visibility. It is informed by conjunctural theory in cultural studies, with the use of textual narrative and affective analysis. It focuses on Hong Kong’s television culture as a site for context configuration, or conjuncture, for constructing the inter- and intra-ethnic relations between the dominant ethnic Chinese and ethnic minorities (EMs), via the production of emotions. Chapter One introduces a conjunctural understanding of the construction of EMs in Hong Kong through revisiting some of the most prominent theoretical works that explore the transformation of Hong Kong identity, in order to point out an underlying Hong Kong-Chineseness as a cultural center, and to argue that the demand of the present conjuncture is to respond to the necessity of generating an alternative “EM-context” suitable for reimagining Hong Kong identity. Chapter Two attempts to map out this “EM-context” by reviewing the major popular non-Chinese figures on TV, namely Louie Castro, Gregory Rivers (known as “Ho Kwok-wing”) and Gill Mohinderpaul Singh (known as “QBoBo”) in order to study how their particular cultural visibility can open up ways to rethink the problems surrounding visibility. The narrative affective approach to study racial relations is applied to the reading of No Good Either Way (TVB) in Chapter Three and Rooms To Let (RTHK) in Chapter Four. Together, these two core chapters explore the affective configuration of “anxieties” and “shame” in the two TV programmes. It is suggested that these affective landscapes help position EMs as either a “sweetened trouble-maker” (in the work place) or “assimilating neighbor” (in the domestic sphere), both of which fall short of being able to construct a new context/conjuncture for understanding the cultural presence of EMs. This research rejects the study of race/ethnicity through content analysis of stereotype, and opts for an approach that reads affects and narratives in the search not for representational visibility, but for what is termed “conjunctural visibility.” Ultimately, Chapter Five concludes with a discussion of the dynamics of “soft” and “hard” representations of the ethnic other: the former in the mode of “sugarcoated racism” which involves the figure of EM as the sweetened troublemaker appealing for audience’s sympathy, and the latter in the form of public pedagogy aimed at educating the audience (through shaming) to treat their EM neighbor as the assimilated other. This research study aims at making a small contribution to the understanding of the struggle for conjunctural visibility among EMs in Hong Kong.

In light of the growing criticism of multicultural policies of integration, there has been an increased interest in the questions surrounding political integration of immigrant-origin minorities. In particular, public and policy debates have focused on the importance of a shared sense of Britishness, the incompatibility of certain cultural values and practices, as well as the role of grievances and discrimination in determining the successful integration of the growing population of ethnic minorities. The work presented in this thesis consists of three separate studies that look at different aspects of political integration. The first study examines determinants of the strength of attachment to Britain among immigrant-origin individuals. Specifically, it looks at the role of: (1) indicators of integration and assimilation, (2) immigrants' conservative ideological beliefs, (3) the 'desirable' characteristics of immigrants, and (4) immigrants' placement on the individualism-collectivism scale. Empirical analyses are conducted using three datasets: Understanding Society, Citizenship Survey and Ethnic Minority British Election Study. The findings from individual and multi-level regression models show that collectivist orientation, determined by both individual differences as well as cultural differences of immigrants' countries of origin, is an important predictor of self-reported strength of British identity. In consequence, it is argued that the subjective importance of Britishness among immigrants is perhaps associated with integration/assimilation outcomes to a lesser extent than it is commonly believed. The second study presented in the thesis examines the applicability of the arguments derived from group consciousness and assimilation theories for explaining the patterns of political participation among British ethnic minorities. The chosen indicators of assimilation and group consciousness include: (1) measures of attachment to national and ethnic community, (2) perceptions of ethnic grievances, and (3) embeddedness in national versus ethnic civic community. The statistical analysis based on EMBES data shows that group consciousness indicators have a mobilising effect on non-electoral activities, and influence political party as well as ethnic-specific policy preferences. On the other hand, greater embeddedness in the national rather than ethnic community has a positive effect on electoral participation. Therefore, it is argued that both theoretical approaches are relevant for understanding political involvement. However, the effects of group consciousness and assimilation indicators operate in more nuanced ways than the classical formulations of these theories would predict. The final study examines the role of ethnic organisations for political mobilisation of two distinct communities: Bangladeshis and Caribbeans based on the data from forty qualitative interviews with community activists located in Birmingham and Oldham. The comparative qualitative enquiry aimed to (a) explore whether the existing differences of political integration outcomes between the selected communities can be partially attributed to the character of their co-ethnic organisational networks; and (b) to explore how and why co-ethnic associations might affect the political mobilisation of local communities. The findings from the interview data indicate that activists from these two communities have very different attitudes towards political agency and the role of co-ethnic organisations. In general, most of Bangladeshi organisations can be described as having instrumental goals and pro-mainstream orientation, whereas most Caribbean organisations could be characterised as having expressive goals and anti-mainstream orientation. In consequence, it is argued that the different character of ethnic civic organisations has an important impact on the ways these communities engage in politics, both as individuals and as groups.

This thesis explores the mutual constitutions of visuality and empire from the perspective of gender, probing how the lives of China's ethnic minorities at the southwest frontiers were translated into images. Two sets of visual materials make up its core sources: the Miao album, a genre of ethnographic illustration depicting the daily lives of non-Han peoples in late imperial China, and the ethnographic photographs found in popular Republican-era periodicals. The study highlights gender ideals within images and aims to develop a set of 'visual grammar' of depicting the non-Han. Casting new light on a spectrum of gendered themes, including femininity, masculinity, sexuality, love, body and clothing, the thesis examines how the power constructed through gender helped to define, order, popularise, celebrate and imagine possessions of empire. In order to examine the visual transformations of images of non-Han, this study places the Miao albums and modern photographs side-by-side for comparison, revealing the different ways of seeing ethnic minorities when Han Chinese gender norms were de/reconstructed. The insights into the visual codes of gender also aim to place Chinese imperial models in a cultural context, testing how well the case of China fits into theories of empire generated mainly from European models. This thesis asks how imported imperial tools, in particular European technology and the science of human variations, were localised within the conceptualisation of nations in modern China. It also considers the relationship between text and image in historical analysis, uncovering the values of images to historians in novel ways. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis aims to contribute to the fields of gender, visual culture and imperial studies.

This diploma thesis is analysing society in the United Kingdom during the '60s. The United Kingdom today is seen as multicultural society with open and positive approach to immigrants from all different parts of the World. The first wave of immigrants arrived right after the WWII. These first immigrants were coming to the United Kingdom from all parts of the British Empire. Mainly from India, Pakistan and Caribbean. The situation changed during the '60s. Despite the fact that number of the immigrants was not too high, the new laws were introduced to stop immigration from non-European countries. My initial hypothesis: In the post war period the UK impeded the free immigration to the country. How the United Kingdom treated the immigrants during the '60s? What was the proportion of immigrants of the total population? I would like to lay emphasis on the analysis of the government steps, the responsible ministries and mood changes in the society. One chapter is devoted to the analysis of the situation in London. Which is an exceptional area with a high number of immigrants. The situation in the UK will be a part of comparison with selected countries of Western Europe. This is to show the difference between the British approach during the period. The aim of this thesis is to look for the reasons why the United Kingdom applied a different approach to immigrants compare to Western Europe during the '60s and to highlight the main aspects of the changes in attitudes towards immigrants.

This thesis Position of Roma minority in the First Czechoslovak Republic focuses on position of ethnic and national minorities in the First Czechoslovak Republic between 1918 and 1938, specifically on position of Roma minority. Many scholars have already focused on the topic of position of minorities in the First Czechoslovak Republic, but only few focused their work on position of Roma minority. This topic still remains quite unexpolred. In the first part of my thesis, I will focus my research on disprooving claim, that we can consider Czechoslovakia as consociational democracy, by apllication of four basic consociational mechanisms on the political system of the First Czechoslovak Republic. In the second part of my research I will focus on position of Roma minority in Czechoslovak society by analyzing origins of Roma minority, laws focused on Roma minority and position of political parties and majority society towards Roma minority.