Diversity in the post-war United Kingdom
Uploaded by hollyn on Jan 05, 2002
'What have been the main forms of diversity to emerge in the post-war United Kingdom, and to what extent have they been sources of uncertainty?
There have been many forms of diversity to emerge in the UK in the post war period. It is subjective which of these can be considered the main forms. Personal circumstances may colour somebody’s view of which forms of diversity are the most noticeable, have had the most profound effect or caused the most uncertainty. For example a person living in a community with a higher than average Asian population may cite Britain’s more multicultural society as being the biggest change in post-war Britain compared to somebody from the South West for example where the number of people belonging to ethnic minorities is relatively low. Many changes have taken place in Britain since the end of WWII and there is no objective answer as to whether any of the changes are to the detriment of society as a whole. Political ideology can often determine what changes are seen in a positive light e.g. the more opportunities open to single parents to return to work while bringing up young children may be seen as a positive form of diversity, particularly if you are a working parent but to read a conservative-leaning newspaper such as The Daily Mail or The Daily Telegraph one might consider this change is not a favourable one. I will therefore discuss the changes which I consider to be the most considerable and the how these can be viewed in terms of uncertainty.
Diversity does not automatically lead to uncertainty, in some instances it could be argued that more choice of categorization can help people make a firm commitment to one group, lifestyle etc... Rather than having to choose the category that is simply the least different or most similar from a limited set of criteria e.g. “I have a penis so I am male”, there are now more detailed, complex categories providing a more highly specific answer to questions of a person’s gender e.g. a person with a penis could now consider themselves “Transgendered”. So, in some cases through an increased diversity of choices a person can achieve more certainty about who they are. Turner et al discussed the question of gender categorisation in 1987 in his Self-categorization Theory. He believes identity is shaped by self-categorization, that people review the social categories on...