Introduction

From its foundations as a distinct field of research and scholarship, the study of race and ethnicity has been focused on the interactions between groups in urban communities and cities. Early scholarship in the field, shaped in many ways by the pioneering work of the Chicago School, explored key facets of the development of what came to be called race relations in urban conurbations such as Chicago (Apter et al. 2009; Bulmer 1984). Much of this early research was focused on the evolution and development of racialized urban situations in the USA during the early part of the twentieth century. This was a time of large-scale internal migration within the USA of African Americans from the old South to the large urban conurbations of the North. This was also a time of continuing large-scale immigration from Europe and other parts of the globe to the USA. In this changing environment, many of the large urban conurbations saw the formation of new forms of racialized relations that were to shape and influence the configuration of race and ethnic relations in the USA throughout the twentieth century (Katznelson 1973; Lal 1989). Although much of the early research in the field was framed around the experience

of the USA, it is also important to note that the emphasis on cities and communities was also evident in the scholarly research of European scholars working on questions about immigration and minority formation in the post-1945 period. A good example of this trend can be found in the work of John Rex, which was concerned with the formation of race relations in British cities such as Birmingham in the period from the 1950s onwards (Rex and Moore 1967; Rex 1973). Rex, and other European scholars subsequently, shared some of the same conceptual frames as the American researchers. In particular, the influence of the urban ethnographic tradition helped to shape scholarship in this field through research agendas in a number of national environments (Body-Gendrot and Martiniello 2000). In this themed issue of the journal we have brought together a selection of eleven

papers that deal with various contemporary facets of race, ethnicity and diversity. Although this selection of papers is by no means exhaustive, we hope that they help to highlight key areas of contemporary scholarship and research in this field. The first two papers are linked together by a common concern to understand the changing make-up of localities and cities in the context of evolving ethnic and racial diversities. The first paper by Daniel Hiebert, Jan Rath, and Steven Vertovec seeks to outline a research agenda for exploring the changing morphology of urban street markets in a context of growing ethnic and racial diversity. Drawing on empirical research on street markets in ethnically diverse cities, the paper seeks to explore the impact of diversity on both the role of street markets and their relationship to wider communities. The core arguments of the paper draw on empirical studies of markets

Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2015 Vol. 38, No. 1, 1-4, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2015.966735

in diverse communities, but the main concern of the authors is to lay out a research agenda for future research on markets and communities. The analysis of urban street markets links up well to the second paper by Suzanne Hall, which is an urban ethnography of a street in South London. In a sense, Hall’s contribution can be read as an example of the kind of research that is outlined in the opening paper. Drawing on her wider urban ethnography of the neighbourhood of Peckham in South London, Hall seeks to provide an account of the everyday realities of life in multicultural communities. By focusing on the level of the street, she seeks to argue that shifting patterns of migration and growing diversity are creating new ways in which urban spaces are lived and experienced. These first two papers are followed by three studies that explore the shifting role of

ethnic diversities in specific cities and communities. The first of this group of papers is by Marc Hooghe and Thomas de Vroome and is a detailed empirical exploration of the relationship between ethnic diversity and anti-immigrant sentiments. It draws on a multilevel analysis of local communities in Belgium and it seeks to provide a rounded analysis of how the expression of anti-immigrant values cannot be fully understood within a national frame, since anti-immigrant sentiments often link up to the lived realities of particular communities. This account is followed by Sarah Scuzzarello’s comparative analysis of the

constructions of migrants’ integration in Malmö and Bologna among a range of policy actors. Scuzzarello’s research draws out both the differences as well as the similarities between the policy frames used to talk about migrant integration in the two cities. A particular focus of her analysis lies in the way in which she seeks to argue that policy actors draw on a wide range of both local and national narratives in order to make sense of what integration means in diverse urban environments. The final paper in this group of studies is Val Colic-Peisker and Shanthi Robertson.

They seek to extend this part of the issue by providing an urban ethnography of processes of social change and community cohesion in two suburbs of the Australian city of Melbourne. In focusing their analysis on two ethnically diverse suburbs, ColicPeisker and Robertson seek to address the question of how community cohesion is impacted upon by wider economic, social and cultural transformations in the two localities. The focus of the following five papers moves on to the question of how ethnicity is

mobilized in the context of community formation and identity construction. The first of these papers is by Judith Parks and Kye Askins and draws on research about narratives of ethnic identity among policy practitioners in community settings in the northeast of England. A key strand in Parks and Askins account is that the meanings attached to community are changing through the experiences of migration, community formation and identity construction. The next paper, by Elisabeth Becker, addresses a theme that has been the focus of

much debate in the USA over the past few decades, namely the construction of ethnicity and identity in a multi-ethnic urban environment. Drawing on Goffman’s (1990) account of the presentation of self in everyday life, Becker takes up the question of forms of assumed ethnicity in the Little Italy neighbourhood of New York City. Becker’s analysis focuses in particular on the ways in which a group of Albanian

Kosovars in the restaurant trade find it strategically useful to construct an assumed ethnicity by presenting themselves as another ethnic group. The phenomenon of the mobilization of ethnicity is also the main concern of the

paper by Jody Agius Vallejo, which draws on research about shifting patterns of ethnic philanthropy among Los Angeles’ middle-and upper-class Latino entrepreneurs. Vallejo’s account seeks to show that while both of these groups of entrepreneurs share some values in relation to helping the mobility of their coethnics, they also can be seen as adopting divergent strategies of philanthropic action in order to achieve their objectives. A somewhat different type of ethnic mobilization is analysed by Rebecca

Vorderlack-Navarro and William Sites. Navarro and Sites draw on a detailed empirical analysis of binational and immigrant rights mobilization, and they are particularly concerned with the complex relationship between states, social movements and Chicago’s Mexican hometown associations. From this perspective, hometown associations provide a mechanism for mobilizations both about specific communities as well as for broader claims to immigrant rights. The penultimate paper in this issue is by Wahideh Achbari and it is concerned with

an exploration of the contact hypothesis in relation to Turkish and mixed non-profit organizations in Amsterdam. Achbari’s analysis seeks to question some of the popular assumptions made about participation in both Turkish and mixed voluntary organizations and to provide empirical evidence that can be used to explore this question in more detail. The concluding paper in this issue is by Jody Mellor and Sophie Gilliat-Ray and

can be seen as providing a historical account of the processes that shaped the formation and evolution of the Yemeni community in Cardiff in Wales from the 1930s to the 1970s. This is a relatively long-established minority community and Mellor and Gilliat-Ray seek to explore the role of various forms of religious, personal and cultural networks in shaping the experiences of the Yemeni community. The papers in this issue of the journal are by no means exhaustive of the range of

papers that related to cities, ethnicity and diversity. But we do hope that they are indicative of the exciting and innovative research that is being done in this field in a wide range of national and urban settings.