The landscape of post-imperial whiteness in rural Britain

Rural racism is a serious political problem and this paper explores the conditions of its production. Most significant among conditions producing racism is not the management of racialized otherness, as many writers contend, but the fabrication of white Britishness itself in the peculiar, shifting, social alchemy of rural life and landscape. Particularly important in the production of rural whiteness is the ‘Raj factor’; the contribution of returnees, retired from service in the British Empire. These lives are expatriated from Britain, forged in the social relations and landscapes of empire, and then repatriated. This paper is about the intimate place of empire in rural South Devon and the production and re-inscription of practices of empire which cohere with the fabric of rural life. It argues that these elderly returnees add a tone, an inflection, in the social production of whiteness as place and human fabric, and that this is significant in the production of rural racism. Keywords: Empireracismruralityrace-makingwhitenessBritishness Acknowledgements Thanks are due to Les Back who provided encouragement as well as articles and books that helped me develop this article, to Claire Alexander for her critique of earlier versions of this and to the anonymous ERS reviewers for their lucid critique. Notes 1. The term ‘raj factor’ is borrowed from the CRE report (Jay 1992, p. 11), which uses it to refer to ‘white people born in the former colonies’. They are mentioned in calculating the West Country's black and Asian population, balanced against the UK born black population, so that overseas birth provides a measure of ethnicity. 2. See for example the Annual Magazine for 1997. Not all of those who sign up for the Corona Club will be ex-colonial returnees, as returned expats might also join, but most will be. Additional informationNotes on contributorsCaroline Knowles Caroline Knowlesis Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London