Programme full

Wednesday 15 April 2015 16:00 - 17:30
PAPER SESSION 3
increasingly to research to inform their practice; how academics are responding to this; and what conceptualisations of
knowledge and of police officer are being constituted through the discourses framing such collaborations.
Not Only Different but Better? Does Collaborative Research Represent Methodological Progress?
Crow, G.
(University of Edinburgh)
In the history of social science, many claims to methodological progress have been made. This paper considers
claims that the development of collaborative research represents methodological progress over what went before, and
superiority to alternative approaches currently available. It does so by considering in turn the key set of issues on
which this evaluation can be made. These issues relate not only to standard criteria of the representativeness,
reliability and validity of the data generated but further issues of ethics, ownership, cost, practicability, and
sustainability. The argument will proceed by posing potentially awkward questions for the collaborative approach
(such as 'Is collaborative research vulnerable to capture by particular groups of collaborators and therefore open to
criticism on the grounds of unrepresentativeness of samples?') and then considering possible responses from the
collaborative research position. The coverage will necessarily be selective, given the wide range of types of
collaborative research (broadly understood) that have developed. Some concluding reflections about the relevance of
this topic to the 'impact' agenda and to the notion of the democratization of research will be offered.
Race, Ethnicity and Migration 1
CARNEGIE LECTURE THEATRE, CHARLES OAKLEY BUILDING
RESEARCHING RACISM IN THE UK AND IRELAND
This panel draws on work from CoDE at the Universities of Manchester and Glasgow which aims to draw together the
wealth of existing data collected in the last 50 years and generate new data which can shed light on ethnic inequalities
in the UK. CoDE is an interdisciplinary centre which is exploring the historical contexts behind the changing dynamics
of ethnic inequalities. This panel brings together five papers which consider racism and discrimination in a range of
contexts and which also reflect on the categories and framing which scholars use to understand racialized inequalities,
hostility and violence.
Everyday Racism: A Useful Concept?
Harries, B.
(University of Manchester)
This paper considers the implications and usefulness of 'the everyday' in understandings of racism. It comes from a
concern that by distinguishing some forms of racism as 'everyday' we risk reinforcing a separation between racism
that people routinely face from racism which is described as 'extreme' or out of the ordinary without first thinking
through the consequences of such a move. The paper highlights how distinctions between different understandings of
racism are somewhat blurred and can create confusions and contradictions in the ways in which people deal with
race. It questions whether the distinction made between different types of racism is less useful than thinking of the
multiple and messy ways in which race and racism structure our relations. The intention is not to dismiss the notion of
studying the everyday, but rather to reflect on what we are doing when we say we are researching race and everyday
life.
‘What is Racism?’, ‘We’re Not Racist’
Ashe, S.
(University of Manchester)
As racism continues to evolve and in the process become more complex, this paper aims to draw on two separate
research projects to highlight ongoing challenges for anti-racism, as well as, the police and local authorities who have
a duty to protect public safety and prevent disorder and crime. The paper will do so by drawing on research conducted
with colleagues in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research into the impact of loyalist and Irish Republican
marches and parades in Scotland. In doing so, this paper will outline how the police, local authority representatives on
public procession planning committees and loyalist procession organisers claim not to understand sectarianism and in
particular anti-Irish racism. The discussion will then move on to examine the ways in which the United Kingdom
Independence Party attempt to deflect accusations of racism by making reference to ethnic minority party members
125 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University