ETHNICITY, WORK AND LOCALISM - NARRATIVES OF DIFFERENCE IN LONDON ANDKAMPALA

The value of ethnicity varies with context. Whether and for whom it is a resource, a liability, or without salience of any kind depends on t he options of a particular environment, and other-things-happening wit hin it. By this reasoning, the simple fact of an ethnically mixed popu lation is not predictive of whether or how ethnicity counts in the bus iness of livelihood. This article argues that different kinds of urban system are more or less amenable to the ethnic option, and explores t he extent to which localism and/or work may override or underwrite its effect. It reports the comparison of two inner London areas with simi larly mixed populations but very different economic structures, and an ideal type model in which they are contrasted. In one type of system, ethnicity is consistently maximized/used/useful; in the other, locali sm is the lead principle. Analysis shows that different opportunities and constraints on work make the significant difference between them. The same model applied to a Kampala parish reveals an urban system whi ch is neither 'ethnic' nor 'localist' in the London sense, yet confirm s the systematic interrelation of ethnicity, work and localism. In the Kampala case the crucial difference is between men and women - in res pect of their involvement in the local area, and the possibilities for making a living which it offers.