This thesis explores the impact that legislative changes have had on African Caribbeans competing in Birmingham’s market situations. It also assesses the extent to which educational and labour market success or failure might have influenced their contemporary spatial locations. A mixed methods approach is utilised to examine how the social class position, and spatial patterns, of the city’s African Caribbean population have changed since the early 1980s. The research provides a contemporary update of aspects of Rex and Tomlinson’s (1979) survey, and also Ratcliffe’s (1981) work, which was conducted in 1970s Handsworth. Despite successive anti-discrimination legislation, passed between 1965 and 2010, racist practices in the education, employment and housing markets have persisted. African Caribbean social and spatial mobility are examined in the context of social, political and ideological changes influencing the equality agenda, particularly where racial inequality is concerned. Shifts in the educational and labour market status of Black Caribbeans are articulated using Marxian, Weberian and Bourdieusian notions of social classes: as position, as situation and as disposition, respectively. Social mobility is measured according to the progress African Caribbeans have made in their efforts to obtain higher educational capital, and the extent to which they have exchanged them for occupations in the upper tiers of the labour market. African Caribbean spatial mobility is mapped between 1991 and 2011 and the movement of Birmingham’s Black population, from high to low deprivation urban spaces, is examined. Changes from renting to homeownership, are also analysed as indicators of improvement in Black Caribbean housing tenure. The critical race perspective, of interest convergence, is used to argue that the free market can be appropriated to ameliorate racism. However, it is also acknowledged that African Caribbean community organisations, and those sharing the same focal concerns, must pool their resources to achieve the aim of racial equity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:714933 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Hamilton, Dennis George |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/88778/ |
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