Frameworks, Fieldworks and Inspirations

Abstract

What does it mean to be White in contemporary postcolonial societies? I set out in this book to take the reader on a journey through the complex cultural politics of White ethnic identities in everyday English settings, which is a prominent example of a postcolonial society.¹ Whiteness, Class and the Legacies of Empire develops a postcolonial perspective drawn from an established body of literature known (not unproblematically) as Whiteness studies. This perspective is both informed by and helps interpret my own multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted in semi-rural, suburban and urban locales in England. One aim of White ethnicity studies has been to develop a critical language to render visible the local, national and global power and privilege that shapes White ethnicities in Western societies. Scholars in the field of postcolonial studies place emphasis upon the importance of contextualising Western hegemony in the West’s imperial past, namely, the histories of European slavery and colonialism. I shall endeavour to deepen the theoretical insights of Whiteness studies by drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork to explore the legacies of Empire to the everyday, mundane and contemporary reproduction of White power and dominance within everyday settings in England.² My contention is that the role of the colonial in the formation of contemporary White ethnic identities is either explored in brief or simply ignored by scholars working in the field of White ethnicity studies. There are of course some key exceptions to this, which I shall discuss later on in this chapter.