Communities, Centres, Connections, Disconnections: Some Reflections on the Riots in Birmingham

Abstract

This paper presents key ideas from fieldwork conducted in Birmingham between 2009 and 2011. This work examined identity in ‘white’ neighbourhoods, and attitudes to politics and understandings of poverty in more mixed ones. This work revealed that many Birmingham residents were concerned about a perceived loss of values, the impact of ‘unrespectable’ households and individuals in their areas and the apparent disconnect between political representatives and local residents. In the aftermath of the disturbances of August 2011 across England, including in Birmingham, we revisit these themes and examine the implications for understanding disorder in the city of Birmingham.

‘Urban Safaris’: Looting, Consumption and Exclusion in London 2011

“…2.8 Bhattacharyya et al (2012) make a similar point in their article about looting and rioting in Birmingham. They show that much of the looting in Birmingham focused on the City centre, an area which the authors argue, the rioters felt sufficiently dislocated from to ‘enact violence, precisely because they are not treading on anyone else's turf, and because it contains all the consumer outlets that have further transformed it into a space that could be virtually anywhere in the Western World’ (2012: 4.3).…”

An urban laboratory for the multicultural nation?

“…Chan (2007) argues that in Birmingham, we might see a multiculturalism that is based on the presence of cultural identities and a concern with imagining the landscape of the city rather than an interculturalism that would address existing segregations, racial inequality and discrimination. Indeed in the recent White Paper Making Birmingham an Inclusive City (Birmingham City Council (BCC), 2013), the ongoing disconnection between neighbourhoods is listed as a top priority (see also Bhattacharyya et al., 2011). Birmingham is ranked as the ninth most deprived authority in England, with unemployment levels at nearly twice the national average and disproportionately affecting ethnic minorities.…”

“…Whilst this was not the first time that Birmingham has been held up as a model city for the rest of the nation, 3 struggles over place and belonging were considered to play an especially significant role in Birmingham's riots (King, 2013), thus demanding caution against allowing displays of urban solidarity to conceal the segregation, exclusion and disaffection that continued to blight the city (Bhattacharyya et al, 2011). Further explanatory discourses stretched beyond the boundaries of the city and cited moral nihilism, gang culture, social breakdown, social exclusion and the consequences of neo-liberal consumerism and austerity measures as key factors for the unrest (Murji and Neal, 2011).…”

Speaking and Listening: The 2011 English Riots

“…5.13 Strong local journalism can provide accurate and sensitive coverage that acts as a counterweight to national spin that paints all events with the same brush, though they were in fact diverse events with their own causes and histories (Bhattacharyya et al 2012). Examples of good practice that we cited in the report as engaging with local actors include Paul Lewis's on-the-spot reporting published in The Guardian (along with the Reading the Riots project by The Guardian and The London School of Economics in which journalists and researchers have built extensive local partnerships to enable ‘unheard voices’ to reach public spaces) [13] and lesser-known initiatives such as The Voice of Africa , whose journalist Space Clottey reported at the conference on the ways in which this black community radio station sent their reporters to Tottenham to report on what was happening.…”