RESEARCHING 'WHITENESS': AN INTRODUCTION

This book is an exploration of sociological and psycho-social theories of the construction of whiteness vis-à-vis perceptions and imaginings of otherness. It has three main aims. First, to introduce the reader to the history and theoretical unfolding of contemporary studies of whiteness in North America and Europe. Second, to explore the structural facilitating factors of these constructions, through such institutions as the state and the media. Finally, the book synthesises a psycho-social perspective to look at the underlying mechanisms which fuel social exclusion and inclusion in society. Theory is never separated from practice and the book makes full use of empirical examples from the authors' own research and secondary examples. We also discuss the theoretical problems and methodological dilemmas in this field of research in a journey that takes the reader from the social construction of whiteness to the psychological othering of marginalised groups in society.

This book aims to provide the reader with an in-depth analysis of the construction of white identity, or 'whiteness', in the British context through the exploration of sociological and psycho-social ideas which the authors synthesise to provide a fuller picture of the social and psychological construction of identity. Whiteness, as a form of ethnicity, is rarely acknowledged by its bearers, yet it has significant ramifications in terms of the construction of 'other' identities; in the creation of community; in processes of exclusion and inclusion; and discourses around 'race' and nation. We start from the perspective that what we are researching is specific to a time and a place. The paradigm developed from American sources but that does not exhaust its potential for application or illumination of social relationships (Garner, 2006). We show that in provincial England in the first decade of the twenty-first century, some threads of the discursive construction of Englishness link people in different class positions to each other through mechanisms of exclusion, entitlement and belonging that function to racialise the speakers as white and entitled, and their Others as not white and un-entitled.

What is the Whiteness Problematic?

Whiteness is as much an analytical perspective as a describable social phenomenon. Indeed, in the introduction to his cultural analysis of white people, John Hartigan's concise definition of whiteness is qualified, 'as a concept honed by academics and activists' (Hartigan, 2005: 1). 'Whiteness', he argues, 'asserts the obvious and overlooked fact that whites are racially interested and motivated. Whiteness both names and critiques hegemonic beliefs and practices that designate white people as "normal" and racially "unmarked"'.

This is a good starting point because it exemplifies the inextricability of epistemology and objectification in this project. The debate among American labour historians and partially pertinent critiques such as those of Kolchin (2002) and Kaufman (2006) testify to some of the circular arguments that potentially ensue from this 'catch-all' use of whiteness. This debate appears irresolvable: the positivist empirical tradition dominant in the discipline of history seeks a different type of evidence from the interpretive tradition. If the proof of the pertinence of whiteness consists of people referring habitually and explicitly to themselves being white, then British fieldwork will not generate much data that satisfies this criterion. However, there are also potential drawbacks to using the whiteness problematic: when we look through this prism, we risk seeing everything as whiteness and not accounting for specifics, where other concepts might be equally effective (racialisation comes immediately to mind). The emphasis of the whiteness problematic, as we see it, should be on how white British subjects identify themselves through an often contradictory system of codes, involving evasion of direct references to 'race' with discourses involving culture, nation, class and gender, and combinations of them. These 'discursive repertoires' (Frankenberg, 1994: 2) are exemplified by some of Bridget Byrne's (2006) London mothers, who talk about getting 'the right mix' (of racialised groups, in which whites remain in the majority) in local schools. Indeed, Reay et al. (2007) observe that the right mix is vital to some middle-class families' projects of accumulating what they term 'multicultural capital' for their secondary school-age children. This is accomplished as a process of making themselves better people by learning how to interact with their Others: both ethnic minorities and working class.

Implicit in the enterprise of analysing whiteness is a recognition that its field of application and epistemological grounding are not concerned with what can be covered by the term 'race' alone, but also with class and gender, nationality and status. While this type of perspective might draw the critique that racialisation is here over-emphasised vis-à-vis the other elements, it might be worth considering that work that postulates a white class-based identity as normative – without referring at all to the effects of racialisation – is equally a conceptual error.

So the paradox of this enterprise is evident: although the actual objective is to deconstruct whiteness, objectifying it as 'white identity' risks reification. 'Whiteness' as a problematic is merely an instrument to be deployed within the sociology of racism. It should not become a separate field of 'whiteness studies', which, in the British context, we consider an intellectual and political dérive. Rather, probing whiteness has two main objectives:

1. the problematisation of white identity as a raced, privilege-holding location that is part of the social relationship in which structural racism flourishes;

2. to force recognition of the limits and the parallels drawn between less privileged white actors and racialised minorities by confronting the complexities of the intersections of class, 'race', ethnicity and gender.

In conclusion, using the whiteness problematic in terms of the UK is a project aimed at highlighting the fluidity, contingency and power relations bound up in white identities rather than shoring up their homogeneity.

The Context and Empirical Research

The context of this book sits within a three year Economic and Social Research Council-funded research project entitled 'Mobility and Unsettlement: New Identity Construction in Contemporary Britain', which formed part of the larger Identities and Social Action programme. This project explored the links between the themes of...