Conversations

Huddersfield is a semi-urban town in West Yorkshire that grew as a centre of a once thriving textile industry. The demise of this dominant industrial function has left Huddersfield with feeling of a town that lacks identity. It was a textile industry that was the first globalising force in the region becoming the home of people, predominantly from Afro- Caribbean, Middle Eastern and Eastern Asia cultures. The processes of globalisation however, have continued to accelerate, bringing people from further afield, ranging from university students, to asylum seekers. Multiculturalism therefore has been a feature of this area since the 1950's, yet we see a town divided. My work explores how ethno-identities intersect with time and space in this post-industrial setting, and to discover if an anthropological study of these people can help us converge in a shared feeling of alienation.