‘It's true, I'm English… I'm not lying’
Essentialized and precarious English identities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17545875 |
|---|---|
| Authors | C Leddy-Owen (0000-0002-0175-9057, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1448-1466 |
| Publication date | 2012-08-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01419870.2012.705010 |
| OpenAlex | W2078029151 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 25 |
| References cited | 27 |
This article explores relationships between Englishness and racialization in order to consider the potential for English identities that are progressive in anti-essentialist or multicultural terms. The article draws on data from interviews in which people from a South London area talk about Englishness. I will examine how English identities are understood by participants who are white and participants who are not white. While white participants experience Englishness as a taken-for-granted identity, for participants who are not white English identities are a more calculated, precarious performance. I will then examine discussions of ‘who can be English’. While most participants argue that ‘anyone can be English’ in principle, this is not necessarily the case in practice. It will be suggested that talk of Englishness is particularly constrained by relationships between Englishness, whiteness and ancestry, but that for those who experience Englishness as precarious there are signs that this is not necessarily the case
Aesthetics · Essentialism · Identity (music) · Multiculturalism · Order (exchange) · Pedagogy · Race (biology) · Racialization · Sociology · White (mutation) · Gender Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Second Language Learning and Teaching
Racism and Ethnic Inequality in a Time of Crisis
Recognising British Bodies
Gate-keeping the nation
Indifference or hostility? Anti-Scottishness in a post-Brexit England
Anti-racist social work in a ‘post-race society’? Interrogating the amorphous ‘other’
Hierarchies, scale, and privilege in the reproduction of national belonging
We all just want a flag to get behind’
Englishness Politicised
From mood to movement
I'll eat meat because that's what we do”
Divided Images
You Should Have Told Me That Earlier
Multicultural nationalism? National identities among minority groups in Scotland's census
Re-establishing the ‘outsiders
What contributes to ethnic minorities’ identification with Hong Kong? The cases of South Asian and Filipino youth
Whiteness, class and place in two London suburbs
British nationalism and encounters with difference
I had a hard time actually trying to catch the essence of Englishness
The dis/comfort of white British nationhood
Ambiguous immigrants? Examining the changing status of the English in New Zealand
Celebrating British multiculturalism, lamenting England/Britain's past
Sub‐state national identities among minority groups in Britain
National identities among minority and ‘majority’ ethnic groups
The (in)significance of citizenship in white British citizens' narratives of national belonging
The maintenance of white privilege
Britons
Rethinking Ethnicity
White Lives
The Making of English National Identity
After Empire
Distinction
Dimensions of British Identity
Whiteness, Class and the Legacies of Empire
White Nation
Gender Trouble
Identity as Ideology
Ethnic Options
Set in the silver sea
Losing the peace
National ceremonies
A sense of where you belong in the world’
Boundary mechanisms and symbolic resources
English Identity and Ethnic Diversity in the Context of UK Constitutional Change
The myth of the civic nation
Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste
The New Politics of Community
It Just Feels English Rather than Multicultural
Acceptable and Unacceptable Immigrants
Land of My Fathers? Economic Development, Ethnic Division and Ethnic National Identity in 32 Countries
The invisible weight of whiteness
| Unique citing works | 25 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,08 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 24 |