BOUNDARIES OF RACE - PROCESSES OF ETHNICITY IN ENGLAND

The persistent assumption that racial and ethnic systems of classification are distinct from one another obscures the complementarity of the two notions. They are here related in a model of social boundary systems which allows the marking, shifting and durability of lines of socially significant difference, however designated, to be seen as elements of larger boundary processes. It is suggested that each social boundary involves two sides and two kinds of meaning: it marks a change in what goes on, and it represents, for both sides, a means by which 'we' may identify ourselves in opposition to 'them' if it suits the purpose of the context in which we interact. The process of real boundary situations is governed by the match and mismatch of these four components of each boundary, and by the congruence or overlap of the various boundaries pertaining. Three items of urban English ethnography illustrate three versions of racial/ethnic boundary process entailed. The first shows a sense of 'us' created by the official articulation of a Housing Action Area. The second, with reference to the south Asians in London, demonstrates the interplay of self-imposed and other-imposed ethnic boundaries and the ways in which their position and their value shift from one context to the next. And the third accounts for the anomalous ethnic status of the contemporary black English in terms of the extraordinary dissonance of the boundaries defining them at this time.