Paper short abstract:

This paper draws on young adult narratives of racialised neighbourhoods to explore fluid and multi-faceted identities of place and associations of belonging. Notions of race, class, crime and urban culture intersect in the construction of spaces which must then be negotiated.

Paper long abstract:

Migration settlement patterns in the UK have resulted in neighbourhoods often associated with one particular racial or ethnic group. These spaces become signifiers of racialisation processes, but also act as locations of other processes of identification including those related to class, gender and urban culture. Young adults aged 20-30 years old, living and working in these neighbourhoods are the second (+) generation to be shaped by these processes. At the same time, this group have recently become more mobile and have an expanding 'lifespace'. Using auto-photography, participant observation and semi-structured interviews, my PhD research has elicited young adult narratives about everyday life in two inner-city 'migrant' neighbourhoods and a third which is not associated with the migration process. The three neighbourhoods in Manchester are racialised (crudely as 'Asian', 'Black' and 'White') and connoted with negative stereotypes that commonly centre around immigrant culture, working class and 'chav' culture, high crime, drugs, guns and gang culture.

Individual narratives on place help draw out these multiple subjectivities and highlight fluid and complex associations of belonging. Narratives can be explored in relation to the way they are constructed alongside broad and historical representations and in conjunction with performed interaction and narrated experience within and between these racialised spaces.