Contesting Culture: Discourses of Identity in Multi-Ethnic London

Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology #100

by Gerd Baumann

In a vivid, ethnographic account of immigrant groups living in West London, Gerd Baumann breaks with the conventional discourse of community studies to explore their mutual interaction. By treating Southall--the most densely populated, multi-ethnic ghetto in the London area--as a social field, he considers how people from different backgrounds come to terms with one another and with the dominant, host culture, while at the same time affirming their own ethnic distinctiveness.

Genres: Sociology, Anthropology

215 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 1996

Reviews

[Nèri · Rating 4 out of 5]

University read for my bachelor thesis, it is very interesting!

[Nadya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drawing from six years of ethnographic fieldwork among Southallians in England, Baumann questions the extent to which the dominant discourse surrounding concepts like “culture” and “community” has been applied to ethnic groups. Baumann identifies that the dominant discourse suggests that “communities” and “culture” can be determined based on supposed “ethnic” categories (p. 20). While affirming that this dominant discourse is not necessarily incorrect, Baumann proposes an alternate through which we can understand and speak of the concept of culture: demotic discourse. Literally meaning “of the people,” Baumann posits that a “demotic” discourse “allows Southallians to create new communities as well as to subdivide or fuse existing ones” (p. 195). In this book, Baumann identifies five separate “ethnic” identities: Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Afro-Caribbean, and White. Throughout the study, Baumann illustrates how each “ethnic” group makes use of the dominant discourse (either through being described by others with this discourse, using the discourse to describe themselves, or using it describe another group) but also makes use of the demotic discourse. It is for this reason, Baumann concludes, that the demotic discourse is not an opposite nor is it an independent alternative to the dominate discourse. Rather, the demotic discourse is a tool that can be used to help describe the more intricate happenings within these community groups.

Considering its wide-scope, Contesting Culture effectively argues for a reconsideration of the dominative discourse surrounding culture. As far as sociological books go, it is an enjoyable (easy) read.