Imagining the Asian gang: ethnicity, masculinity and youth after ‘the riots’

Abstract

The paper explores the discourses surrounding the ‘riots’ of 2001 as a reflection of contemporary understandings of raced/ethnic, gendered and generational identities, and changing discourses about race and ethnicity in Britain. The paper examines these themes in relation to current academic theorizations of culture, identity and difference. Finally, the paper explores the implementation of these understandings in current government policy papers and practices around ‘community cohesion’ and ‘citizenship’. It argues that each of these arenas employs very static and bounded notions of ‘community’, ‘culture’ and ‘identity’ which deny the complex formations of lived identities and obscures ongoing relations of power and disadvantage. This has clear implications for the future of multicultural policy, citizenship education and social justice.