ABSTRACT
Scholars have been increasingly interested in how everyday interactions in various places with people from different ethnic/religious background impact inter-group relations. Drawing on representative surveys in Leeds and Warsaw (2012), we examine whether encounters with ethnic and religious minorities in different type of space are associated with more tolerance towards them. We find that in Leeds, more favourable affective attitudes are associated with contact in institutional spaces (workplace and study places) and socialisation spaces (social clubs, voluntary groups, religious meeting places); however, in case of behavioural intentions - operationalised as willingness to be friendly to minority neighbours - only encounters in socialisation spaces play a significant role in prejudice reduction. In Warsaw, people who have contacts with ethnic and religious minorities in public (streets, park, public services and transport) and consumption spaces (cafés, pubs, restaurants) express more positive affective attitudes towards them, but only encounters in consumption space translate into willingness to be friendly to minority neighbours.
ABSTRACT
Postcolonial theory has tended to focus on those spaces where European colonialism has had a territorial and political history. This is unsurprising, as much of the world is in this sense 'postcolonial'. But not all of it. This article focuses on Poland, often theorised as peripheral to 'old Europe', and explores the application of postcolonial analyses to this 'other' place. The article draws upon reflections arising from a study of responses to ethnic diversity in Warsaw, Poland. In doing so we conclude that postcolonialism does indeed offer some important insights into understanding Polish attitudes to other nationalities, and yet more work also needs to be done to make the theoretical bridge. In the case of Poland we propose the 'triple relation' be the starting point for such work.
ABSTRACT
This paper is located within work in urban studies about the significance of contact with difference as a means for reducing prejudice and achieving social change. Recent approaches, influenced by theories of affect, have emphasised non-conscious everyday negotiations of difference in the city. In this paper it is argued that such approaches lose sight of the significance of the subject: of the reflective judgements of 'others' made by individuals; of our ability to make decisions around the control of our feelings and identifications; and of the significance of personal pasts and collective histories in shaping the ways we perceive and react to encounters. Rather, this paper uses a biographical approach focusing on interviewees' narratives of encounter. Through its attention to processes of mobility and emplacement, it contributes to debates about when contact with difference matters by highlighting the importance of everyday social normativities in the production of moral dispositions.
ABSTRACT
In most contemporary western societies there is growing concern about rising levels of alcohol consumption, particularly by young people, even in countries, such as France, which have previously been assumed to have 'sensible' drinking cultures. Recent popular and policy debates about British drinking cultures have hinted at a shift in generational attitudes towards alcohol, as well as patterns of consumption. Previous intergenerational studies of work and care have found that in particular historical periods different normativities develop, reflecting both social and economic conditions. In this paper, we draw on a research project about alcohol consumption conducted in an urban and rural area - including intergenerational interviews with case study families - to identify the different normativities in terms of attitudes towards and consumption of alcohol experienced by three cohort generations in their youth. The paper then goes on to explore the patterns of both change and continuity that are evident in the interviewees' experiences. The conclusion reflects on drivers of intergenerational change and associated health policy implications.
