Abstract:

       This lecture will discuss the UK research findings from a project funded by the Indian Council for Social Science Research. It was a collaborative investigation between researchers from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India, and the Centre for Community Engagement Research at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

This exploratory study had two key aims; firstly, to investigate young peoples (aged between 18 and 21 years of age) personal views and experiences of caste identity and discrimination who were from a South Asian heritage, particularly where possible who identified themselves as having a Dalit heritage. Secondly, it aimed to consider what impact, if any, the following had on their caste identity; globalisation; ‘consumer capitalism’; the internet and social media/networking sites, eg. Facebook and Twitter; music; increased international travel; and the growing opportunities for upward social mobility, for example, via educational achievement.

From the UK perspective young people and caste discrimination and identity in the UK is an under-researched area. The findings indicated that caste identity and discrimination amongst some young people in the UK existed but changing within the contemporary social and cultural milieu. The discussion of these findings will be located within the current discussions concerning general caste-based discrimination in the UK and the wider issues regarding caste as a protected characteristic in the UK Equality Act 2010.

About the speaker:

   Dr Roger Green is Senior Research Fellow/Director, Centre for Community Engagement Research at the Department of Social, Therapeutic and Community Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. Internationally known academic community researcher and community activist. One of only a small number of UK university academic applied social researchers actively involved in promoting urban community research and engagement by taking the university out into the community and working with communities by applying co-production and participatory social research methods. 

Previously worked at a number of other UK universities including Hertfordshire, Birkbeck, Essex, Open University and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, in Mumbai, India.Successfully undertaken and delivered over 100 international, European, and UK regional community research projects funded by a diverse range of sponsors. 

Co-researcher on a UKIERI funded collaborative research project with researchers from the UK universities of Cambridge, Bradford and the TATA Institute for Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. This project explored the nature of social cohesion, integration and separation, diversity, equality and discrimination experienced by diverse, minority, disadvantaged and under-represented students attending higher education in the UK and India (2010-2013).

Collaborated with the UK based Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance with their ground breaking report on caste discrimination HiddenApartheid – Voice of the Community - Caste and Caste Discrimination in the UK(2009) thatproduced substantial evidence that caste discrimination existed in practice within the UK.

Co-researcher UK Equality and Human Rights Commission funded research project on caste discrimination in the UK with academics from the following UK universities; SOAS, Wolverhampton, Warwick and Manchester (2014).

Collaborated with several European universities culminating in a bestselling co-edited book Critical Reflections on Theories, Methodologies and Methods: Connections. Between Research and Social Change, Palgrave Macmillan (2008).

Current activities that informInternational, UK national and regional social policy decisions include; working with the UK anti-caste campaign; supporting social excluded and marginalised communities in London; visiting faculty staff University of Ostrava, Central Eurtope on community participation; advisor to several London based NGO’s; community development work in Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya;

Current research projects include; Community social isolation in the City of London; and community and family poverty in the North East of England.He is currently undertaking preparatory work for a book ‘Urban Development: Voices from Below’ publisher Palgrave MacMillan.