ABSTRACT
The understanding of multiculturalism as a public policy in Great Britain has been very much influenced and shaped by the lived experience of ethnic minorities in the large cities. Beginning with the first pioneering studies in the 1960s (Rex and Moore 1967), the urban disturbances of the 1980s (Beynon and Solomos 1987), and the more recent riots in northern industrial towns in the summer of 2001, the urban landscapes where the ethnic minorities have settled have always provided a testing ground for the effectiveness of public polices; and the dramatic manifestation of breakdown, as evident in recent riots, often calls into question wider ideals of multiculturalism as public policy. The disturbances of 2001 were no exception. In retrospect they will probably mark a turning point for the Labour government that came to power in 1997 as ‘New Labour’ with its agenda of a ‘Cool Britannia’ in which cultural diversity was to be celebrated. Yet in less than four years, against the background of the pressures generated by the asylumseekers, the hostility to the report on The Future o f Multi-Ethnic Britain (Runnymede Trust 2000), the urban riots and the fallout from September 11th, this policy has marked something of a volte-face. Increasingly, the language of ‘Cool Britannia’ with its promise of ‘community of communities’ has been marginalized by themes of a ‘cohesive nation’ and ‘community cohesion’.
