Bourdieu began in the 1970s to articulate an epistemological position which would protect the ‘practical sense’ of ordinary experience from the intrusions of the academic gaze. This chapter follows this development. Bourdieu developed a theory of social scientific understanding which would allow him to reconcile his inclination to respect the self-understandings of social agents with his equally strong inclination to subject social behaviour to systematic explanation. This chapter first examines Bourdieu’s articulation of his critique of structuralism. It then considers some of the texts in which he attempted to reconcile a constructivist orientation with its origins in structuralism.

This chapter analyses the local historical background to the introduction of dispersal in Southall, after education secretary Edward Boyle visited Beaconsfield Primary School on 15 October 1963. In 1960–62, the soaring number of Punjabi Asians in the area caused a great deal of discontent among autochthonous whites, who were afraid that the influx of non-Anglophone pupils would hold back their own children’s education. Some of these campaigned against the looming threat of ‘ghetto schools’ through the Southall Residents Association, which was instrumental in bringing about the ministerial visit at the genesis of schooling dispersal. This chapter also gives a detailed account and analysis of the introduction of dispersal locally, which proved difficult since some white parents were averse to the arrival of Asian children in their own children’s schools.

This chapter presents a few lines from Jules Verne's novel The Green Ray that make a good place to start, not only in opening up concerns of colour in the film to hand, but also as introducing thoughts of Eric Rohmer's particular style of filmmaking. The Green Ray focuses on the different experiences that shade into one another during one summer's hazy plans. Greenery brushes the first shot's borders. Similarly to Three Colours: White and Equinox Flower, one particular colour is prominent in The Green Ray. As the film's title suggests, shades of green comprise not only the 'story within a story' but also the key colour motif. Bold and pastel colours clash in moments of close physical gathering, especially around dinner tables. The film finally releases a glimmer of hope, held in a glimpse of the green ray.

This chapter examines the poetry and film of Canadian Ismaili Ian Iqbal Rashid. It argues that Rashid’s debut feature film, Touch of Pink (2004), queers the heteronormative genre of the Hollywood romantic comedy while focusing on an underrepresented community, namely the East African Ismaili diaspora in Canada and Britain. The chapter suggests Rashid’s characters are placed at the interstices between Ismaili traditionalism, colonial and postcolonial modernity, and diasporic postmodernity. It begins with an analysis of Stag (2002), a short film resonating with Rashid’s poetry, and its critique of the lingering legacies of colonialism in postcolonial Britain. It also analyses Rashid’s first short film, Surviving Sabu (1997), arguing that it rehearses a building of bridges between two generations of diasporic Muslims. Lastly, it undertakes a reading of Touch of Pink suggesting that it constructs migrant Muslim women as less imperviously traditional than Muslims brought up in the West would want us to believe. It is argues that Alim, the film’s protagonist, needs to outgrow the constraining colonial legacies of Western film, while his white British boyfriend Giles is required to become attuned to the cultural distinctiveness of Alim’s experience as a member of an ethno-religious minority.

Chapter 2 considers how Shanghai Tang, a Hong Kong-founded fashion brand, exploits Shanghai’s imagined cosmopolitan legacy towards the building of a multinational luxury brand. The author considers the rising political tensions between Hong Kong and Shanghai, as Hong Kong was handed over from British to mainland Chinese rule in 1997. The chapter discusses a 1997 Shanghai Tang advertisement featuring Chinese actress Gong Li, addressing how the image signals the return of class-based society while sanitizing mainland China’s immediate socialist past. This chapter also examines the powerful influence of Shanghai Tang’s founder, art collector Sir David Tang, on the international dissemination of contemporary Chinese art, exploring key Shanghainese painters promoted by Tang, including Yu Youhan, Wang Ziwei, and Ding Yi. Referencing these artists’ connections to Shanghai Tan and also the French fashion brand Christian Dior, the chapter theorizes the rise of a contemporary Chinese art/fashion system. The final section focuses on Shanghai-based sculptor Liu Jianhua, who has been supported by both Tang and Christian Dior, and the artist’s subversion of mainland China’s presumed role as “the factory of the world” through his ceramic-based practice.

This chapter draws attention to a dynamic range of arts-based sanctuary practices emerging across diverse geographies. By explicitly attending to these artful practices, the chapter offers an understanding of sanctuary as more than a sum of government policies and initiatives. More specificallty, the chapter asks: what role do these practices play in constituting and mobilising discourses of sanctuary? The chapter argues that these creative expressions might be collectively understood as ‘sanctuary artivism’. Artivism is politically significant for three key reasons. First, it exposes forms of everyday and ‘slow’ violence often invisiblised through a state-centric lens. Second, by affectively and intimately revealing insidious forms of violence, sanctuary artivism emboldens collective forms of resistance. Finally, sanctuary artivism enacts generative solidarities and modes of citizenship that exceed statist forms of political belonging. Contra a growing body of sanctuary scholarship, the chapter argues that these sanctuary expressions cannot be adequately understood through traditional scales of the city, the nation, or even the planet. Rather, these sanctuary politics are better understood through the register of the ‘global-intimate’. The chapter concludes by calling for a deepened understanding of, and engagement with, the global intimacies of sanctuary artivism as vital components in building more expansive geopolitical imaginations.

The economic crises of the 1970s were understood to require action on a broad scale. The Conservatives focussed on three areas: public spending, taxation and the role of private enterprise. In simple terms, the party would argue that government expenditure needed to be cut, that the burden of taxation needed to be reduced, and that the profitmaking power of the private sector needed to be restored. However, this chapter argues that although there were important developments, the Conservatives’ wider economic policies did not change dramatically. By the end of the period there was a little more acceptance that the electorate were aware of the need for tough spending cuts, but the Conservatives had always called for retrenchment and, despite some tough rhetoric, the party did not appear ready to slash public spending at all costs. There were also some more philosophical arguments about the need to reduce taxation and support the free market system, and there were hints at some of the more controversial and lasting changes that would be brought about by the Thatcher governments. However, the fine detail of Conservative policy did not develop as much as might be expected.

Ultras grew out of a politically turbulent time in Italian history: the politics of the piazza were taken into the stadium. While some ultras groups retain some ideologically political outlooks, many consider themselves apolitical. Despite this, many still see themselves as nationalist, reflecting the normalcy of the nation-state. Often these descend into racism as groups assert the desired image of their club, nation or region. Few ultras groups follow explicitly ideological politics of left or right. Yet all groups are engaged in football politics and challenging the increased regulation, restriction and criminalisation of many of their activities. This is collected under the banner of ‘Against Modern Football’, which acts as a unifying element of the ultras style. Consequently, the ultras can be considered one of the largest social movements in the world.