Reimagining Englishness: 'Race', Class, Progressive English Identities and Disrupted English Communities

This article explores suggestions made by the contemporary mainstream left in England that reinvigorated English national identities could be an important resource for constructing a progressive sense of social solidarity and community in England. Analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology (Oxford) 2014-12, Vol.48 (6), p.1123-1138
Main Author: Leddy-Owen, Charles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
British culture
Class
Class identity
Communitarianism
Communities
Community identity
Community relations
Constructivism
Cooperation
Cultural identity
Cultures and civilizations
Discourse analysis
England
Ethnic groups. Acculturation. Cultural identity
Expectations
Interviews
London, England
National Identity
Nationalism
Political identity
Race
Social cooperation
Social integration. Social relations. Social participation
Social organization. Social system. Social structure
Sociology
Studies
United Kingdom
White people
Whites
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Summary:This article explores suggestions made by the contemporary mainstream left in England that reinvigorated English national identities could be an important resource for constructing a progressive sense of social solidarity and community in England. Analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews undertaken in a South London area finds that English identifiers do associate Englishness with a sense of social cooperation and community. However, for most participants, the expectations they have of Englishness are experienced as disrupted. Focusing on white participants' accounts, the article demonstrates how such disruptions are crucially related to the discourses of 'race' and class that seem to underpin English identities and thus severely if not fatally undermine the progressive potential of English nationalism.
ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/0038038513516829