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Acknowledgements
I am grateful for the comments of Vincent Nadin, Sandeep Kumar Agrawal, Geraint Ellis and Vivien Lowndes on an earlier version of this paper.
Notes
1. Products of this persistent effort in relation to race equality include advice on translation (RTPI, Citation1993), advice on how local authorities should respond to racist representations on planning matters (RTPI, Citation1996), and a study of recruitment to planning schools with a view to increasing black and ethnic minority recruitment (Ahmed et al., Citation1998). See also RTPI (Citation2007). There has also been some progress in increasing the proportions of black and ethnic minority planners, although perhaps less than the Institute would wish. Recent Labour Force Survey data show that about 4.5% of the profession is from black and ethnic minorities, an increase over 10–15 years (Nadin & Jones, Citation1990), but still a small proportion of a growing sector (Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, Citation2005, p. 24).
2. It may be that there need be no irreconcilable tension between respecting cultural difference and seeing it as a competitive asset, but I think that in practice this is what happens in Britain; further research could shed light on this.
3. The legislative history and history of promotion of anti-discriminatory policy in Northern Ireland is rather different, as might be expected. In brief, ‘Northern Ireland's equality agenda has been dominated by the fair employment (religion and political opinion) legislation’ first introduced in 1976 (McSorley, Citation2003, p. 2). Uniquely in Britain, this legislation had provision for affirmative action. The equivalent of the UK's 1976 Race Relations Act was introduced only in 1997. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, introduced as a consequence of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement of that year, laid the basis for new constitutional arrangements in Northern Ireland (in essence a devolved assembly with power-sharing across political and sectarian divisions). It also set up a new Equality Commission and placed a duty on public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for nine defined groups—including racial groups—and to promote good relations among three others (again, including racial groups). In pursuing this duty, public authorities are required to produce Equality Schemes that show how they will fulfil the duty, and also are expected to undertake Equality Impact Assessments of their policies (Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, n.d.). These provisions clearly foreshadow the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and Equality Act 2006. It has been strongly argued by Wilson (Citation2007) that in Northern Ireland the equalities struggle has been dominated by a concern with ‘recognition’ at the expense of redistribution.
4. Ellis (Citation2001) provides an excellent account of the sensitivity, or lack of it, of the planning system in Northern Ireland to the needs of ethnic minorities. The picture is strikingly similar to the United Kingdom, although there are some local circumstances also in play in explaining these outcomes.