CUCR is a well established interdisciplinary research centre within Goldsmiths’ Department of Sociology with a distinguished history of collaboration with local communities and activists. It combines theoretical investigation with critical ‘local’ project implementation from Deptford to Jakarta. It's podcast series Street Signs is produced by Freya Hellier. BHAMBRA, Gurminder 2007b. Rethinking modernity: postcolonialism and the sociological imagination. London: Palgrave Macmillan

co-author with Vron Ware) Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics and Culture Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press Lewis, C. (2020). Listening to community: The aural dimensions of neighbouring. The Sociological Review, 68(1), 94–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026119853944 To the world’s range of enormous problems, liberalism responds with its verbal fetish of ‘freedom’ plus a shifting series of opportunistic reactions. The world is hungry; the liberal cries: ‘Let us make it free!’ The world is tired of war; the liberal cries: ‘Let us arm for peace!’ The peoples of the world are without land; the liberal cries: ‘Let us beg the landed oligarchs to parcel some out!’ In sum: the most grievous charge today against liberalism and its conservative varieties is that they are so utterly provincial, and thus so irrelevant to the major problems that must now be confronted in so many areas of the world ( Mills 1963: 30-1). GILROY, Paul 2004. After empire: melancholia or convivial culture. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge

Biography

Gayatri Spivak once asked provocatively 'can the subaltern speak?’ That was over twenty years ago. My interpretation of this difficult text is that she was tying the distribution of geopolitical power and economic wealth to the shape and quality of Eurocentred forms of knowledge production, what she refers to as the ‘ferocious standardising benevolence’ of US and European social science including sociology ( Spivak 1988: 294). The argument here, if I have understood it right, is that subalterns are silent not only because their interpreters and cheerleaders speak on their behalf but also because of a particular epistemic structure in which an ‘other’ is created by particular European thought and then this creation, like Fanon’s primal scene of racial sociogeny (‘Look Mama a Negro’), is assimilated into that which created it in the first place. She wrote that this need not apply to all modes of reporting and witness: ‘The cautions I have ... expressed are valid only if we are speaking of the subaltern woman’s consciousness – or, more acceptably, subject. Reporting on, or better still, participating in antisexist work among women of colour or women in class oppression in the First world is undeniably on the agenda.’ Her critique is directed at the constitution of the muted subaltern subject and the confident authority of the Western subject that speaks in her place. I want to suggest that a shift to explore the nature of the relation between subjects offers another set of challenges relevant to the concern with global social inquiry and also possible alternatives to the damage done by such modes of authority. Spivak does not dissolve the potential for European writers to develop a sociological attentiveness to the world: ‘We should also welcome all the information retrieval in the silenced areas that is taking place in anthropology, political science, history, and sociology. Yet the assumption and construction of a consciousness or subject sustains such work and will, in the long run, cohere with the work of imperialist subject-constitution, mingling epistemic violence with the advancement of learning and civilisation, And the subaltern woman will be as mute as ever’ ( Spivak 1988: 294). BHATT, Chetan 2004. ‘Geopolitics and “alterity” research,’ in Researching Race and Racism, eds., Martin Bulmer and John Solomos. London and New York: Routledge Today, Neil and Freya are all about the deep and ancient connections between the land, nature and culture. It’s something that you can feel pretty strongly in the West Highlands of Scotland, and we’ve been learning how all of those things can work together to enrich our everyday lives. On a moody, drizzly day, Freya met Dr Jennie Roberton, a freelance archeologist, for a walk through a beautiful patch of woodland which opens out onto some fascinating ruins. We learn about the story of Mary of Inniemore who was one of thousands of Highlanders who were cleared from the land and had to make a new life. Schafer, M. (1967). Ear Cleaning: Notes for an Experimental Music Course. Toronto: Berandol Music Limited.

Basel, L. (2017). The Politics of Listening: Possibilities and Challenges for Democratic Life. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Alex Rhys-Taylor Coming to Our Senses: A Multisensory Exploration of Class and Multiculture in East London2011 (full-time ESRC Student) I have a wide experience of PhD supvision and I am currently supervising students in the field of multicultural conviviality, immigration control, cultural identuty, racism and fascism, nationalism, sport, social class, gentrification and urban divisions. Professor Michael Keith, Director of The University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), UK The first point that I want to make is to suggest that if we are to develop ‘global sociological modes of sociological inquiry’ – and I want to argue very strongly for the urgency of this - it necessitates re-thinking the near at hand as well as the elsewhere. This should not be a license for a global scramble for exotic informants in Africa or China who will only be assimilated in an age old and self-serving way. Part of the challenge of global social inquiry is to re-think how we understand the traces and presences of global relations in and across localities.

Abstract

Luke: Of course. I really wanted to speak to Les for the podcast because as we build the Centre, concerned as we are with the study of racism and racialisation and being located here in London, I couldn’t think of a better person to speak with and learn from actually than you, Les. Les has been thinking, writing and teaching about racism and multi-culture, particularly in his beloved London for many years. So, despite hailing from south of the river, I know that we at the Centre are going to have a lot to gain from friendship and engagement with Les, so thanks so much for coming on the podcast. I spoke to him about his upcoming research, plans for the Centre, and the 'urban regeneration' of his native South East London. Sireita Mullins Post colonial legacies of marginalisation as rendered in the visual works of multiethnic young people in Lambeth , 2011 (Full-time ESRC Case Studentship) It's the final episode in season 1 and we come to a rest at the end of the West Highland railway line: Mallaig. This is an impressive collection of essays, ranging from the classics to the contemporary cutting edge. The extensively updated third edition of this essential collection again shows the editors’ commitment to providing the scholarly community with a historically rooted, in-depth overview of critical writings on race and racism. The result is a key volume on the theorization of race and racism, sophisticated and inventive in its conceptualization, and deeply attuned to the genealogies that we build on in our work on race and racism. Perhaps even more importantly, it is forward-looking, providing readers not only with an overview of historical developments, but also with incisive readings that focus on contemporary concerns in the field and suggest directions for new work. The lucid introduction lays out the stakes of theorizing race and racism in the current moment, while the readings gathered in the volume present multiple theoretical starting points rather than an argument that ‘one theory fits all’. As a result, the volume provides readers with a critical in-depth starting point for thinking about, conducting research on, and working towards social justice regarding race and racism’.

The Changing Face of Football: Racism, Identity and Multiculture in the English Game (2001) with T Crabbe and J. SolomosCS: The emotive issue of 'urban regeneration' is one that continues to effect areas local to Goldsmiths like Deptford and New Cross. What is your take on the so-called 'gentrification' of South East London? Mallaig is the main coastal hub of Lochaber, it’s at the end of the Road to the Isles from Fort William. But like much larger Oban in Argyll further south, it’s also a springboard to wider adventures. You can jump on ferries to the northern Knoydart Peninsula, the Small Isles and Outer Hebrides out west, and of course the ever-popular Isle of Skye. Baker, H. (2020). Wobbles on Cobbles [Recorded by Hak Baker]. On Wobbles on Cobbles [Audio Album]. The Orchard Music.

Later that day, once the skies were beginning to clear, Freya went on another walk, this time to learn about a collaborative and nature focused approach to modern Highland estate management. Les: I think it’s really important. The world is a better place for the fact that the Centre exists at all and that you’re trying to do the work that you’re doing. To my mind, what you’re doing is part of hope’s work. That’s what it means. That’s what it is. It’s undeniable, it cannot be taken away, it’s done, it’s achieved; and I think it’s important to honour that and to appreciate it. We meet Sarah, Hugh and their cheeky pygmy goats, to learn how working with the land and animals can improve wellbeing. LB:I want to develop new collaborations and link up with research across Goldsmiths and develop new ideas for research, carrying on the great work done by the previous Director Professor Caroline Knowles. I also want to try and do something interesting with our home in Laurie Grove Baths and make it a real hub for activities, meeting and ideas. We have a small space where we exhibit artworks that are linked to urban life that include Tim Cousins’ paintings of the Eltham bus stop where Stephen Lawrence was murdered, and also one of David Howe’s Manhattan street corner portraits. Join your hosts Neil Robertson and Freya Hellier as we learn about the West Highland region of Lochaber.PubPub is an open-source, open-access publishing platform. Part of the MIT Knowledge Futures Group, PubPub gives communities of all stripes and sizes a simple, affordable, and nonprofit alternative to existing publishing models and tools.