Ambivalent positions: Ethnicity and working in our ‘own communities’

1. Ambivalent positions: Ethnicity and working in our ‘own communities’ Multicultural Britain: From Racism to Identity Politics Dr Kanwal Mand and Dr Susie Weller www.lsbu.ac.uk/families

2. Introduction: Context of paper • Women’s workshop • Race and ethnicity in HE markets. • We are interested in: • the intersection between power and niche markets within HE • the way in which many (women) researchers carve out a niche on the basis of identity politics • Women's motivations to work in their ‘own communities’ ~ carving niches in response to constraints within the academy or because of opportunity factors? • Entanglements of Power • Enabling and/ or Disabling?

3. Carving out a niche • Our background ~ Insider/ outsider? • We compare our experiences as an Asian/middle-class woman and a White/working-class woman • We also draw from the experiences of our colleagues • Constructed notion of ‘community’ ~ a researcher often has some commonality, shared identity, language, culture or geographical background with their participants • Failure of conventional categorizations ~ Susie, not conventionally seen as part of an ‘ethnic’ group. Kanwal, traditionally be categorized as an ethnic minority.

4. Kanwal’s fieldwork The experiences of teenagers in rural Britain Fieldwork in a community radio station Susie’s fieldwork In the field

5. The enabling niche • Authority and authenticity: Who may speak for whom? • Shared backgrounds: Rapport, trust and access. • Representing under-represented groups • Positive discrimination

6. The disabling niche • Contract research in British HE • Composition/ skills utilised • Nature • Current drives for high quality and speed in the production of knowledge in academia • Constrained to a niche • Hierarchies/ precariousness

7. Conclusions: Challenges • Barriers in academic careers ~ gender, class and ethnicity. • Working in ‘own community’ may be simultaneously enabling and disabling • Individualisation, specialization and the pressure to continue working and publishing within one niche. • The compartmentalization of different studies of ethnicity and culture.

8. Conclusions: Recommendations • Collective work may foster possibilities for researchers to move within and between niches. • A fundamental shift away from the idea that “Black women can only do research in Black communities” is both essential and needed. • A better system for career progression is needed for those working on short-term contracts, which would allow more women and minority ethnic researchers to reach senior positions.