Description
Book Synopsis Migration and multiculturalism are hotly discussed in public debates across Europe. Whereas ethnographic research has begun to examine the Right in this context, the Left remains largely unexplored. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Bologna – the show-case city of the Italian Left – this book provides fresh perspectives on how the contemporary Left "frames" these issues in practice and how such framing has changed in recent decades. By focusing on the official rhetoric grassroots discourses, policy and civil societal practices of the Left as well as on the immigrants' own views, this book timely offers a comprehensive, vivid, and critical account of changing ideas about ethnicity, class, identity and difference in "progressive" politics and of the implications that such ideas have for the incorporation of migrants in Europe.
Trade Review “The fluid and dynamic narration of these pages give the reader a detailed and comparative understanding of the failure of the Italian Left to translate into practice an inclusive rhetoric vis-à-vis new immigrants…In sum, this is a detailed and original study, which, due to the emphasis it places on institutional behaviour and logic of action, can easily circulate not only among scholars but also among politicians, policy makers as well as civil society activists.” · Anthropology in Action
Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Left and the Challenge of the ‘New Immigrations’
Chapter 2. The Case Studied: Historical and Geographical Background
Chapter 3. The Left and Immigrants in the Socialist Era
Chapter 4. Official Rhetoric, Immigrants’ Views and Grassroots Discourses
Chapter 5. Housing Policies
Chapter 6. Political Participation
Chapter 7. Civil Society
Chapter 8. Inclusionary Rhetoric/Exclusionary Practices: an illustrative ethnographic story
Chapter 9. Conclusions: Multiculturalism and the Retreat from Class
Bibliography
Index
