Race, Community and Conflict fifty years on

Abstract

This review focuses on John Rex and Robert Moore's study of migrant settlement and community relations in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham, UK in the early 1960s. The review argues that this study, now almost fifty years old, anticipated a number of the key themes that characterize and preoccupy the current debates on migration and complex urban communities such as migrant networks and social capital, super-diversity, patterns of residence and transnationlism. The review suggests that the study has enduring value not only as a historical sociological text but in terms of the ways in which its findings resonate with contemporary urban environments and theoretical concerns.