Diversity In Britain Research Articles

“I am not really into the government telling me what I need to eat”: exploring dietary beliefs, knowledge, and practices among ethnically diverse communities in England

BackgroundCommunities with diverse ethnicity in high-income countries are disproportionately affected by poor diet-related health outcomes. In England, the United Kingdom’s government’s healthy eating dietary resources are not well accepted and are underutilised among this population. Thus, this study explored perceptions, beliefs, knowledge, and practices around dietary intake among communities with African and South Asian ethnicity residing in Medway, England.MethodsThis qualitative study generated data from 18 adults aged 18 and above using a semi-structured interview guide. These participants were sampled using purposive and convenience sampling strategies. All the interviews were conducted in English over the telephone, and responses were thematically analysed.ResultsSix overarching themes were generated from the interview transcripts: eating patterns, social and cultural factors, food preferences and routines, accessibility and availability, health and healthy eating, and perceptions about the United Kingdom government’s healthy eating resources.ConclusionThe results of this study indicate that strategies to improve access to healthy foods are required to improve healthy dietary practices among the study population. Such strategies could help address this group’s structural and individual barriers to healthy dietary practices. In addition, developing a culturally responsive eating guide could also enhance the acceptability and utilisation of such resources among communities with ethnic diversity in England.

Teacher Diversity in England 2010 – 2021

Teacher Diversity in England 2010 – 2021

Acheulean Diversity in Britain (MIS 15-MIS11): From the Standardization to the Regionalization of Technology

The appearance of the Acheulean and the production of new bifacial tools marked a revolution in human behavior. The use of longer and complex operative chains, with centripetal and recurrent knapping, adapted to different raw materials, created long useful edges, converging in a functional distal end. How and why these handaxes vary has been the subject of intense debates. Britain provides a clearly defined region at the edge of the hominin occupied world for discussing variation in Acheulean assemblages. The environmental changes from MIS 15 to MIS 11 are significant in understanding population change, with probable breaks in evidence during MIS 14 and MIS 12, followed by several sites during the long stable climate of MIS11c. In this latter period, different Acheulean technological expressions appear to coexist in Britain. This paper draws together different studies, combining technology and geometric morphometrics to analyze handaxes from six British sites: Brandon Fields, Boxgrove (Q1B), High Lodge, Hitchin, Swanscombe (UMG), and Elveden. Compared to the earlier Acheulean of MIS 15, the assemblages of MIS 13 show increased standardization and the use of soft hammer percussion for thinning mid-sections and butts of tools, or sharpening tips through tranchet removals. Although there is regional population discontinuity through MIS12 there is no evidence of a marked change in technology after this glacial period. Rather, there is a development towards more intense shaping with the same underlying techniques, but with flexibility in imposed handaxe form. From MIS11 there appear to be distinctive localized traditions of manufacture, which suggest that a recognition of place and territories had developed by this time. These are expressed over medium time-scales of several thousand years and have significance for how we view cultural expression and transmission.

A new hadrosauriform dinosaur from the Wessex Formation, Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous), of the Isle of Wight, southern England

A new genus and species of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauriform dinosaur, Brighstoneus simmondsi gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight. The new taxon has two autapomorphies, a nasal having a modest nasal bulla with convex sides, and primary and accessory ridges on the lingual aspect of the maxillary crown. The dentary has at least 28 alveolar positions, which is the highest number recorded in an ornithopod with non-parallel sided alveoli, creating a character combination that is unique within Iguanodontia. The hadrosauriform fauna of the Barremian–Aptian Wealden Group on both the Isle of Wight and mainland England has been represented for almost a century by just two taxa, the robust Iguanodon bernissartensis and the more gracile Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis, with referred material often being fragmentary or based on unassociated elements. This discovery increases the known hadrosauriform diversity in England and, together with recent discoveries in Spain, suggests that their diversity in the upper Wealden of Europe was considerably wider than initially realized. This find also has important implications for the validity of the Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis hypodigm, and a reassessment of existing material is suggested. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:31F0D48F-C1DA-406E-A811-1F5937ED19F4

‘I think you have ignored the relevant provisions of the 1944 Education Act’: Muslims, the state and education in England c.1966–c.1985

ABSTRACT Existing accounts of the history of England’s Muslims generally agree that education was a crucial area of early interaction between Muslims and the state. They also tend to situate Muslim–state interactions in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the context of Britain’s developing racial diversity, arguing that the religious identity of Muslims was not acknowledged until the end of the 1980s. State responses to Muslim educational needs prior to the 1980s have been characterised as ad hoc and disorganised, with the possibility of successful relations undermined by the racial and secular focus of multiculturalism. This article challenges this analysis, offering a new chronology and interpretation. It demonstrates that Muslims were interacting with the state in the form of Local Education Authorities from the 1960s and explores the significance of the long history of conservative pluralism in state responses to religious diversity in Britain. It addresses some of the reasons that these interactions tend not to feature in existing accounts and argues the case for further research into interactions between Muslims and the local state in Britain in the late twentieth century to build on the evidence presented.

Immigration and Ethnic Diversity in England and Wales Examined Through an Area Classification Framework

This paper develops an area classification to examine immigration, ethnic diversity, and its social consequences in local authorities of England and Wales. Using a set of demographic, socio-economic, and migration variables drawn from survey and administrative data and cluster analysis methods, it produces a 12-fold classification of local authorities. The classification includes groups of traditional immigrant settlement areas with high flows of migrants of different migration streams and nationalities, smaller urban, and semi-rural areas with high migration rates associated with a dominant migrant group, as well as areas with migration rates close to the national average or below average migration rates. By taking into account the nuances of diversity and immigration and the local socio-economic context in which migrants settle, the classification provides a useful framework towards understanding the different ways immigration can impact on social cohesion and how local policies can be more responsive to the needs of local populations. Examination of attitudes to immigration, perceptions of cohesion, and social mixing suggests that less ethnically diverse local authorities with a dominant migrant group and socio-economically deprived local authorities are most at risk of experiencing higher pressures on social cohesion.

Does ethnic diversity explain intra-UK variation in mortality? A longitudinal cohort study

ObjectivesIt has been proposed that part of the explanation for higher mortality in Scotland compared with England and Wales, and Glasgow compared with other UK cities, relates to greater ethnic...

Impact of rotavirus vaccination on rotavirus genotype distribution and diversity in England, September 2006 to August 2016.

IntroductionRotavirus vaccination with the live-attenuated monovalent (a G1P[8] human rotavirus strain) two-dose Rotarix vaccine was introduced in England in July 2013. Since then, there have been significant reductions in rotavirus gastroenteritis incidence.AimWe assessed the vaccine’s impact on rotavirus genotype distribution and diversity 3 years post-vaccine introduction.MethodsEpidemiological and microbiological data on genotyped rotavirus-positive samples between September 2006 and August 2016 were supplied by EuroRotaNet and Public Health England. Multinomial multivariable logistic regression adjusting for year, season and age was used to quantify changes in genotype prevalence in the vaccine period. Genotype diversity was measured using the Shannon’s index (H′) and Simpson’s index of diversity (D).ResultsWe analysed genotypes from 8,044 faecal samples. In the pre-vaccine era, G1P[8] was most prevalent, ranging from 39% (411/1,057) to 74% (527/709) per year. In the vaccine era, G1P[8] prevalence declined each season (35%, 231/654; 12%, 154/1,257; 5%, 34/726) and genotype diversity increased significantly in 6–59 months old children (H’ p < 0.001: D p < 0.001). In multinomial analysis, G2P[4] (adjusted multinomial odds ratio (aMOR): 9.51; 95% confidence interval (CI): 7.02–12.90), G3P[8] (aMOR: 2.83; 95% CI: 2.17–3.81), G12P[8] (aMOR: 2.46; 95% CI: 1.62–3.73) and G4P[8] (aMOR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.02–1.96) significantly increased relative to G1P[8].ConclusionsIn the context of reduced rotavirus disease incidence, genotype diversity has increased, with a relative change in the dominant genotype from G1P[8] to G2P[4] after vaccine introduction. These changes will need continued surveillance as the number and age of vaccinated birth cohorts increase in the future.

Zombie multiculturalism meets liberative difference: searching for a new discourse of diversity

This paper grapples with an unresolved tension – twenty-first century Britain is indelibly multicultural and yet diversity is increasingly depicted as a threat to social cohesion. A society characterised by superdiverse cities where some suggest that ‘multiculturalism has failed’. On the basis of an analysis of three dominant theoretical and ideological discourses – community cohesion, multiculturalism and interculturalism – it will be argued that there is an urgent need to forge a new understanding of diversity that can counter the zombie discourse that characterises current debates about diversity in Britain. Difference will be framed as a potential source of mutual liberation, not a problem seeking a solution. It will be argued that a critical engagement with political theology can help us to fashion a new discourse of diversity that is characterised by a hermeneutics of liberative difference, which can help to defeat the zombies sucking the life out of diverse Britain.

A Comparative Reading of Elleke Boehmer’s Nile Baby and Richard Hoskins’ The Boy in the River: Different Attitudes Towards the Possibility of Cultural ‘Mixedness’

ABSTRACTThis article examines two contemporary texts that present different attitudes towards cultural diversity in Britain: Elleke Boehmer’s novel Nile Baby and Richard Hoskins’ memoir The Boy in the River. Boehmer, who is an internationally recognised theorist in colonial and postcolonial writing, applies her concept of ‘mixedness’ to characterisation and incident, using the metaphorical and narrative devices available to the writer of fiction, to achieve in her novel a more promising approach to cultural hybridity than does Hoskins. Writing as an ‘expert’ on ‘African’ religions, Hoskins must, in a fact-based genre, establish himself as a reliable informant for his implied British audience. Confronting the ambiguities of ethically and judicially complex situations relating to belief in sorcery and witchcraft, he consigns them to the non-rational, alien, and predominantly dangerous. Hoskins therefore, despite his commitment to notions of shared humanity, re-inscribes oppositional boundaries between the belief systems of ‘the West’ and ‘Africa’.

The Changing Geographies of Ethnic Diversity in England and Wales, 1991–2011

AbstractWhile ethnic diversity is traditionally an urban characteristic, new spaces of diversity are emerging. This challenges our current understandings of the geographies of ethnic diversity and forces us to consider the more intricate spatial patterns and processes of ethnic group population change. Ethnic diversity, now a key feature of contemporary society in Britain, is an issue of public, policy, political, and academic interest; the 2011 Census provided an opportunity to update our knowledge of how diversity has grown, and in what ways. This paper explores the new geographies of ethnic diversity in England and Wales, mapping the evolving landscape of diversity over two decades. The paper makes use of measures of diversity and clustering for small areas (wards) for consistent geographies for 1991–2011, and for the most recent decade using a district level urban–rural area classification. There is evidence of a spreading out of ethnic diversity from urban centres towards areas traditionally less diverse. Spatial mixing has increased – the period also saw a growth of minority ethnic groups in areas outside own‐group clusters. The increased share of all ethnic groups (White British and minority) in less urban areas challenges claims of ‘White flight’ from diversity. Increased ethnic diversity is clearly an important feature of contemporary population change, and the coming years are likely to see continued mixing between people and within places – and in new locales. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Non-native plants add to the British flora without negative consequences for native diversity

Plants are commonly listed as invasive species, presuming that they cause harm at both global and regional scales. Approximately 40% of all species listed as invasive within Britain are plants. However, invasive plants are rarely linked to the national or global extinction of native plant species. The possible explanation is that competitive exclusion takes place slowly and that invasive plants will eventually eliminate native species (the "time-to-exclusion hypothesis"). Using the extensive British Countryside Survey Data, we find that changes to plant occurrence and cover between 1990 and 2007 at 479 British sites do not differ between native and non-native plant species. More than 80% of the plant species that are widespread enough to be sampled are native species; hence, total cover changes have been dominated by native species (total cover increases by native species are more than nine times greater than those by non-native species). This implies that factors other than plant "invasions" are the key drivers of vegetation change. We also find that the diversity of native species is increasing in locations where the diversity of non-native species is increasing, suggesting that high diversities of native and non-native plant species are compatible with one another. We reject the time-to-exclusion hypothesis as the reason why extinctions have not been observed and suggest that non-native plant species are not a threat to floral diversity in Britain. Further research is needed in island-like environments, but we question whether it is appropriate that more than three-quarters of taxa listed globally as invasive species are plants.

Living Multiculture: Understanding the New Spatial and Social Relations of Ethnicity and Multiculture in England

Since 2001, as the social and spatial compositions of multiculture and migration have become more complicated and diverse, geography has moved back to the centre of policy, political, and academic arguments about cultural difference and ethnic diversity in England. This spatial turn is most obvious in preoccupations with notions of increasing ethnic segregation, but it is also apparent in discussions of the possibility of everyday multicultural exchanges in relationally understood places. Responding to the work of others on these questions and in these places, and informed by data from research exploring Ghanaian and Somali migrant settlement in Milton Keynes, we review some of the quantitative and qualitative evidence being drawn on in academic, policy, and political debates about contemporary multiculture. We problematise the dominance of the concept of segregation in these debates and examine the value of the concept of conviviality for understanding the ways in which multiculture is lived.

Ethnic diversity in Britain: a stimulus for multicultural marketing

PurposeThe current study seeks to explore ethnic diversity in Britain by investigating the strength of ethnic identity and acculturation levels of two British ethnic minority groups – Indians and African Blacks. The study also aims to examine the role of demographic characteristics in explaining the strength of ethnic identity and acculturation levels between the surveyed ethnic groups.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized a survey research design. Data was collected using a personally administered structured questionnaire from a convenience sample of 365 married ethnic members.FindingsThe results of t‐tests revealed that both Indians and African Blacks are strong ethnic identifiers and highly‐acculturated. Further results based on step‐wise regressions showed that age and income offer more explanatory power of ethnic diversity among African Blacks and Indians respectively.Research limitations/implicationsThe study highlights the complexity and importance of ethnicity in the development of multicultural strategies in Britain.Originality/valueResearch relating to ethnic diversity in Britain is relatively limited and of the very few studies available, there has been more emphasis on qualitative research approaches. This study also offers findings on ethnicity at a time when there is growth in the population of ethnic markets in Britain.

Discourse and the governance of diversity in England's official tourism texts

Through a focus on selected ‘texts’, this paper critiques the discursive representation of ethno-cultural diversity by Official Tourism Organisations (OTOs) in England. Embracing a social constructionist philosophy and using the method of critical discourse analysis (CDA), three text ‘types’ identified as promotional texts (brochure and web-based texts), operational texts (texts produced as part of the operational practice of the organisations) and interview texts (transcriptions of interviews with representatives of OTOs) were analysed. Utilising a threedimensional approach to written language as text, as discourse practice and as social practice, the research sought to probe representations of ethno-cultural diversity by OTOs in England in order to inform understanding of the constructed inter-textual nature of such discursive practices and their embeddedness in broader trajectories of institutional governance in and through tourism. The interpretative findings derived from this approach to ‘text’ suggest that discourses of denial, equality, otherness and silence are routinely deployed by OTOs vis-à-vis ethnic minority populations in England. It is argued that such projective practices reflect deeper patterns of political and institutional exclusion of ‘minority’ cultures and identities. This raises questions relating to the ways in which OTOs may conceivably foreground, appropriate, institutionalise or deny ethno-cultural diversity when projecting aspects of heritage and identity in and through tourism.

Equality, Inequalities and Diversity: Contemporary Challenges and Strategies

1. Inequalities, intersectionality and equality and diversity initiatives: the conundrums and challenges of researching equality, inequalities and diversity Geraldine Healy, Gill Kirton & Mike Noon .- 2. The social construction of diversity, equality and inclusion an exploration of academic and public discourses Cliff Oswick .- 3. Linguistic diversity in the UK and Ireland Does the meaning of equality get lost in translation? Luke McDonagh .- 4. Navigating multi-layered uncertainty: EU member state and organizational perspectives on positive action Lizzie Barmes .- 5. Ethnic and religious diversity in Britain: where are we going? Prakash Shah .- 6. Tax law as an instrument of workplace diversity Ann Mumford .- 7. Criminalising and prosecuting disability hate crime Peter Aldridge .- 8. Resources and Constraints of Diversity and Equality Officers: Theoretical and Practitioner Reflections Ahu Tatli and Sanchia Alasia.- 9. Flexibility and Equality: Friend or Foe? Hazel Conley .- 10. Gender, ethnicity and migration in Black women's businesses start-up resourcing Cynthia Forson .- 11. The use of quotas in the most equal of the regions - politics and corporate boards in Scandinavian countries Cathrine Seierstad .- 12. Relevance of US and UK national histories in the understanding of racism and inequality in work and career Franklin Oikelome .- 13. The Labour market context and its effect on women's participation in independent business and professional networks - a comparative study of Germany and UK Nicole Avdelidou-Fischer.- 14. Exploring the intersections of gender, sexuality and class in the transport and construction industries Tessa Wright .- 15. Work-life balance: attitudes and expectations of young black and minority ethnic graduates Gill Kirton.- 16. What shapes the careers of young black and minority ethnic people Geraldine Healy and Harriet Bradley.

BLASPHEMY AND THE NEGOTIATION OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN BRITAIN

This paper examines the May 2008 abolition of the British law against blasphemy. The blasphemy law had been the subject of debate since the 1970’s, which began a series of high profile attempts to invoke the law against perceived offenders. No action was taken until after September 11th, when the Labour government sought to institute a law criminalising Incitement to Religious Hatred. It was not until that law came into statute (2006), that the Houses of Commons and Lords seriously debated abolishing the blasphemy law. Against those who argued that changing the legislation amounted to ‘the death of Christian Britain’, I argue that this case offers evidence that the meta-narrative of secularization is neither helpful nor accurate; it fails to account for the reasons why the law was eliminated, or for its relation to ongoing efforts to accommodate religious diversity. The elimination of the blasphemy law and enactment of the Incitement to Religious Hatred legislation should be situated as part of ongoing efforts to negotiate diversity in Britain, and serves as an illustration that a more thoughtful analysis of religion should be a major part of the debate on cultural pluralism.

Avoiding toxic assets and ensuring bank stability: English commercial bank investments, 1880–1910

New estimates are made of the relative importance of investments within the banks' assets structure, of the significance of bank investments in the market as a whole, of the composition of those investments, and of how those changed in a period that experienced a significant increase in the scale, liquidity and diversity in Britain's organised secondary capital markets. Investment holdings in the total market and amongst insurance companies are used as benchmarks. One main finding is that there was a great deal of variation in the size of bank investments relative to total assets, with no evidence of a ‘norm’ investments ratio. Another finding is that although there is some evidence of greater diversity over time, conservatism – and especially the continued heavy reliance on public sector securities – is more evident. Overall, there was a commitment to a high liquidity, risk-averse approach to portfolio management which contributed to bank stability and limited the financing of the private sector.

Detailing Judicial Difference

In January 2004 Baroness Brenda Hale became the first woman to sit on the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. Five years on, she has brought to her judicial role a lightness of touch that belies her increasingly significant impact on the court’s jurisprudence. Early forecasts that she would be “just a bit different” from her male companions have proved prophetic. However such assessments have stemmed primarily from a focus on her decision-making on a case-by-case basis. But what of her jurisprudence as a whole? This paper considers arguments for a more sustained and coherent methodological approach to analyses of Baroness Hale’s (and other judges’) jurisprudence as a framework through which to better understand and explore the potential of judicial difference and to better inform current debates about increasing judicial diversity in England and Wales.

Negotiating Equality and Diversity in Britain: Towards a Differentiated Citizenship?

This paper interrogates the promotion of diversity in relation to contemporary developments within Britain, considering whether the increasingly common public affirmation of ‘equality and diversity’ signals the emergence of British citizenship practices based on a vision of ‘differentiated universalism’. I explore this question in relation to the recent UK Equality Review and the proposed creation of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, focusing in particular on the consultations with the equality agencies. The article suggests that the recent equality review conducted in Britain represents a significant attempt to develop citizenship in the light of a commitment to both equality and diversity, moving beyond an earlier focus on formal anti‐discrimination legislation to embrace a positive duty to promote substantive equality whilst attempting to manage diversity via the creation of a new single equality body. This represents a modification of the formal liberal citizenship model frequently attributed to Britain.