What is 'British culture'?
Analysis12 Feb 2024

What is 'British culture'?

'What is "British Culture?” I was born in the UK and have lived here for 40 years, and yet, as a British Asian person, I am constantly told “we are not integrating”. Not integrating into what culture exactly?'

Bushra Shaikh runs a charity, is a business-owner and is also a writer and commentator. When she posted this question on social media, two million people viewed it, she received thousands of replies, but no clear definition of British Culture. Some respondents mentioned the food, while others defined it by quoting literature or history. But those answers were often just lists; of meals. books, names and dates.

Is "culture" a synonym for race? How can British people of colour integrate, and what does that mean?

Americans put their hands on their hearts, gaze at the stars and stripes and identify with freedom, while the French look to liberty, equality, and fraternity, but is there a British equivalent? Bushra speaks to Historians, cultural commentators, as well as both the UK's newest citizens, and people who can trace their British family roots back hundreds of years, to try to find out what British culture means to them.

Presenter: Bushra Shaikh Producers: Ravi Naik and Sean Johnson Editor: Clare Fordham.

Contributors: Robert Colls, emeritus professor of history at De Montfort University Lionel Shriver, novelist and journalist Pen Vogler, food historian and writer Dr Bernard Trafford, retired headteacher and former member of the citizenship advisory group Anton Dani, Conservative councillor and former mayor of Boston Robert Owen, Vice Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside Professor Alice Foucart, Principal Investigator, Psycholinguistics, Universidad Nebrija, Madrid Dr Tessa Dunlop, historian and broadcaster Keith Richardson, Author

Episoder(389)

What's the future of nudge?

What's the future of nudge?

The term nudge has become a byword for the application of behavioural science in public policy, changing how governments the world over create policies designed to encourage, or nudge, people to make ...

20 Nov 202328min

Can reading really improve your life?

Can reading really improve your life?

Most educational research now suggests that reading for pleasure is strongly linked to a child’s future outcome, educational success, and even wellbeing. But the latest studies also show that reading ...

13 Nov 202330min

Can the UK afford a mental health crisis?

Can the UK afford a mental health crisis?

A record 2.6 million people are off work due to long-term sickness, with mental health conditions the biggest single contributor. The problem is particularly acute among younger people, who are dispro...

6 Nov 202328min

France: a constitutional crisis in the making

France: a constitutional crisis in the making

The USA, the UK and France, which have led the democratic world, are all suffering problems with their constitutions. But the problem is most acute in France, where President Macron has lost his parli...

30 Okt 202329min

What on earth is the national interest?

What on earth is the national interest?

Should we be sceptical when politicians claim to act in "the national interest"? The phrase is frequently trotted out to elevate policy and actions as unimpeachably serving us all. But what does it ac...

23 Okt 202328min

What makes a good school?

What makes a good school?

How should we evaluate schools? Is it about delivering a wide range of subjects, or extra activities and pastoral care that make a “good” school? Who gets to decide what is a good school and what doe...

16 Okt 202329min

How can we grow the UK economy?

How can we grow the UK economy?

The cost of living crisis followed a decade in which people’s wages and incomes barely grew. The idea that each generation does at least as well as the one before, has for the moment ended. We’ll only...

9 Okt 202328min

The Democratic Brain

The Democratic Brain

Our brain is a wonderful machine, but it can also short-circuit. What happens to us when emotions and politics intersect, when the democratic, listening brain is cut off, or when we succumb to ‘hate s...

2 Okt 202328min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

aftenpodden
giver-og-gjengen-vg
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
forklart
i-retten
aftenpodden-usa
stopp-verden
popradet
det-store-bildet
rss-gukild-johaug
fotballpodden-2
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-ness
nokon-ma-ga
hanna-de-heldige
e24-podden
aftenbla-bla
grasoner-den-nye-kalde-krigen
frokostshowet-pa-p5
bt-dokumentar-2