A think-tank report examined what community organizations in two United Kingdom cities (Birmingham and London) – along with Madrid and New York – were doing to alleviate tensions and build bridges between people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Community organizations were limited in what they could do: there was also a role for governments to supplement these efforts. Governments should 'community proof' all areas of their activity by assessing the likely impact of new policies on existing social networks.
Source: Sandra Gruescu and Verena Menne, Bridging Differences: What communities and government can do to foster social capital, Social Market Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A new book examined the role of multiculturalism in the construction of the European Union, and the difficulties of creating a political space for identities that were simultaneously national, regional, linguistic, and religious.
Source: Riva Kastoryano, An Identity for Europe: The relevance of multiculturalism in EU construction, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Dec
An article used intersectionality as an analytical tool to explore struggles for 'institutional space' in policy processes in the United Kingdom and France. Institutional actors severely curtailed the space available to minority-ethnic groups to make complex and intersectional social justice claims. Even though France and the UK were often portrayed as opposites with regard to constructions of citizenship, these seemingly differing traditions of citizenship ended up having a similar effect of 'misrecognizing' the experiences and demands of minority-ethnic women and men.
Source: Leah Bassel and Akwugo Emejulu, 'Struggles for institutional space in France and the United Kingdom: intersectionality and the politics of policy', Politics and Gender, Volume 6 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Dec
A new book examined European immigration and asylum law.
Source: Kay Hailbronner (ed.), European Immigration and Asylum Law: A commentary, Hart Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Dec
