The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research

PERM brings together researchers working on population, ethnicity, religion and migration. These topics are actively researched within CCSR and more widely across the School of Social Sciences and beyond. The aim of the group is to provide a forum for sharing work and ideas and encouraging collaboration in developing new research.

PERM also maintains www.ethnicity.ac.uk a website providing statistical information about ethnic differences and inequality in the UK

PERM Conference

Diverse Neighbourhoods

Policy messages from The University of Manchester

Date: 31st May 2013

Location: Manchester Town Hall, Banqueting Room, Albert Square,Manchester, M1 5DB

Time: 9.45am-4pm

For mor information visit: Diverse Neighbourhoods Conference Details

Seminars for 2012/13

You are warmly invite you to join us, over tea/coffee and cake.

All seminars run from 1-2pm

FORTHCOMING SEMINARS

April 15th 2013 (Room 1.69/70 Humanities Bridgeford Building: 1-2pm)

Lighter than Blood: ethnic enumeration in the era of equality policies

Patrick Simon –INED and CEE at Sciences po, Paris

Collecting ethnic and racial statistics is a contentious issue in a large number of countries around the world. For decades, ethnic and racial classifications have been conceived and used to segregate, build hierarchies and nurture racial and ethnic stratifications and inequalities. Moreover, ethnic and racial statistics have not only been used for evil purposes, their existence as such reflects a misconception of Human nature and social life and fosters a reification of ethnic and racial identities. As Zuberi puts it in his book on the (ab)use of racial statistics -“Thicker than blood”- the single existence of these types of classification convey a racist perception of humankind. This view that has been hegemonic among European social scientists has been challenged by the development of positive action policies which try to move from formal equality to more effective enforcement on the non discrimination paradigm. The need of data for antidiscrimination policies has then called for the collection of ethnic and racial statistics which would serve to redress and dismantle the (insidious though pervasive) sequels of former institutionalized racism. Linked to these reversed objectives of ethnic and racial classifications (to protect and emancipate rather than dominate and stigmatize), the conception of these categories has moved from a primodialist paradigm to a constructivist approach assuming that race and ethnicity are indeed subjective and socially constructed concepts (and so the title of this paper: “Lighter than blood”). Yet the constructivist turn in ethnic and racial statistics raises a series of epistemological and methodological issues that the presentation will try to address.

June 3rd 2013 (Room 1.69/70 Humanities Bridgeford Building: 1-2pm)

Contested Memories: the Shahid Minar and the Struggle for Diasporic Space

Prof Claire Alexander, Sociologym, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester

Abstract:Drawing on new empirical research conducted in East London as part of a project on ‘the Bengal diaspora’, this lecture explores the struggle over Bangladeshi identity in Tower Hamlets as exemplified in the monument of the Shahid Minar and the related celebration of Ekushe (Martyr’s Memorial Day), which is usually held to mark the beginning of the Bangladesh national liberation struggle. Bringing together theories of diaspora consciousness and memorialisation, the paper explores the ways in which rituals and memory work both as a form of continuity with the homeland and as a method of claims-staking for minority groups in multicultural spaces.

PAST SEMINARS

February 4th 2013 (Room 1.69/70 Humanities Bridgeford Building: 1-2pm)

“Colour By Numbers: The Challenges of Using Archival Data in Longitudinal Research on Ethnicity”
Dr Laurence Brown, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester

The National Archives in Kew holds a rich collection of surveys, reports and correspondence on ethnicity in Britain produced by a range of government departments. These records exemplify the fundamental changes in definitions and approaches to ethnicity over the past sixty years, yet this shifting intellectual framework does not undermine their value for longitudinal research.

Abstract:This paper examines how GIS can be used to connect archival and contemporary data on ethnicity drawn from the National Archives and local collections in Greater Manchester. Areal interpolation in GIS enables us to not only construct stable geographies of analysis over time, but to also visualize different constructions of ethnicity simultaneously. Focusing on several Manchester case-studies, the visualization tools of GIS provide the possibilities for new approaches to multi-variant mapping which challenges the assumptions of temporal stability and internal homogeneity central to current choropleth mapping of ethnic populations.

December 10th 2012 (Room 1.69/70 Humanities Bridgeford Building)
“Hemmed In: on the representation of imperial defeat”
Andrew Smith, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

This talk considers the way in which instances of defeat have been discussed, represented and put to use in the context of the history of modern imperialism. Last year’s debates around the commemoration of the events of 9/11 are a reminder of the extraordinary symbolic weight which attaches to moments of ‘defeat’ especially when such a defeat is understood as having being suffered by those who are seen, more generally, as globally powerful. It is therefore important to examine the way in which defeat has been historically construed and remembered, and to recognise how the response to moments of defeat has often been crucial in justifying the further expansion of imperial control, as well as in mobilising popular sympathy in support of imperial action. What is appealed to, in such representations, is frequently not an idea of strategic or economic interest as such, but a less easily defined or contested idea of honour or valour. The long historical roots of this idea reveal, apart from anything else, just how far empire was the context for a rapprochement, domestically, between a newer and an older elite.

October 8th 2012 (Room 1.69/70 Humanities Bridgeford Building)
"All about data: Two new web-based resources for research on ethnic minorities"
Mark Brown, School of Social Sciences and Anthony Heath, University of Oxford

In this seminar we will demonstrate and discuss the uses of two exciting new web-based resources providing data for the study and research of ethnicity in the UK.
www.ethnicity.ac.uk is a new site funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and managed by the PERM, designed to help a range of users locate data and information about ethnic difference and inequality in the UK. The site draws on a range of sources including the Census and other Government surveys, with data presented under themes, including population, health and employment. The site also provides useful contextual information and commentary (for example on the use of ethnic classifications) and links to a range of related resources to support users in further study.
The Online Centre for Ethnicity in Politics (OCEP) is the new website that uses the Ethnic Minority British Election Study (EMBES - based on a 2010 booster sample as part of the British Election Survey) data. This is a major new source of information about ethnic minority political attitudes and behaviour but also includes questions on topics such as language fluency, perceptions of discrimination in different fields, cultural orientations, social relationships and social capital.

Reminders will be mailed to the PERM mailing list before each seminar and please do forward these to anyone else you think may be interested in attending.

We look forward to seeing you,

Previous seminar series

Other Activities

In addition to the Seminar Series PERM regularly supports and helps organise conference events. We also run an active mailing list (currently over 90 strong) providing an opportunity for colleagues to disseminate and hear about information on relevent research and events. Where there is demand (e.g. in response to a new funding call) we can also organise meetings to enable colleagues to come together to discuss research ideas at an emergent stage when they will benefit from feedback and when there may be potential for collaborations.

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Current Projects (this list to be revised)