Promoting Racial Harmony - Hardcover

Banton, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521300827 ISBN 13: 9780521300827

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1985

Synopsis

The years 1965–8 were the 'liberal hour' for race relations policy in Britain. Laws were then enacted, enforcement agencies created, and community relations councils established. These bodies, and their personnel, have been called 'the race relations industry'. To many people, the output of this 'industry' appears disappointing relative to the input into it. This book examines a variety of optimistic assumptions about the speed with which immigrants adjust to a new environment; inadequate minority bargaining power; insufficiently speedy and decisive action by the central government; unwillingness on the part of the white majority to accept the desirability of such action; and the difficulty of fitting a race relations policy into an administrative system created to serve an ethnically homogeneous population. The policies initiated in 1965 reflected the ascendancy of liberal over conservative assumptions about race relations. Now these are under sharp attack from a radical standpoint. Promoting Racial Harmony shows how the debate has changed, drawing upon recent economic theory to formulate the issues in an original but non-technical manner.

About this title

Review

Examines "the race relations industry" phenomenon in Britain in an effort to reveal why the output of the liberal period in British race relations of the mid-sixties seems "low" relative to the effort and support put into it. -- Book Description

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521300827
• ISBN 13: 9780521300827
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 146