Critical Interventions in Public and Policy Debates on Race, Segregation and Diversity

Impact: Political impacts, Societal impacts, Cultural impacts

Narrative

Work undertaken at the University of Manchester (UoM) has provoked debate, and challenged established lines of thought, by ‘myth busting’ current claims about racial diversity and segregation – such as ‘Britain is becoming a country of ghettos’ – which have hitherto dominated public and policy debate. A sociologically-informed demographic approach, developed at UoM, has been adopted by local authorities for monitoring neighbourhood population change and ethnic diversity. Additionally, research findings have been used by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), national policy-makers and local government to promote alternative, sociologically-informed understandings of race, segregation and diversity, challenging the current policy focus. Taken together, these twin interventions have resulted in increasingly critical and robust examinations of race, segregation and diversity, both nationally and locally.
Impact date2014
Category of impactPolitical impacts, Societal impacts, Cultural impacts