LUNN seminar series - Hierarchies, scale and privilege: Unpicking white middle-class construction

Abstract: In this talk, Clarke presents her work on boundaries and hierarchies of belonging as they are produced and maintained by white middle-class Britons. While the existence of hierarchies of belonging has been documented from the perspective of ethnically minoritised and migrant groups, what characterises, produces, and underpins these hierarchies is often unaddressed, as is a geographically informed analysis of their reproduction. To help fill this gap, Clarke's PhD research examined the reproduction of national belonging among white British people for whom such belonging was relatively privileged. How do they imagine Britain as a nation and national community? How do they understand and recognise other people as British (or not), and as belonging (or not) in and/or to Britain? And how do they position differently racialised people in relation to boundaries and hierarchies of belonging? Drawing on her PhD work and subsequent publications, Clarke presents different constructions of national belonging identified within white British narratives, examine the role of whiteness in maintaining hierarchies of belonging, and discuss the relative significance of formal citizenship within informal economies of national belonging.

Bio: Amy Clarke is a Lecturer in Sociology at University of Brighton with a masters in Migration Studies and PhD in Human Geography, both from the University of Sussex. She is broadly interested in questions around identity, belonging, and 'race', particularly in relation to the nation, and has published across the disciplines of Geography, Sociology and Migration Studies.

Please note that the talk will be recorded.