Diversity and multiculturalism
Diversity and multiculturalism are inevitable outcomes from an international and inclu¬sive approach to entrepreneurship. This must be welcomed as a positive advantage, yet also brings challenges which need to be resolved. Multiculturalism offers multiple perspec¬tives, the potential for conflict arising out of misunderstanding or competing ideologies, and the need for dialogue, negotiation and shared understanding. The case of Leicester demonstrates the point.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Leicester was an unremarkable British provincial city, dependent on a textile ?nd garment industry which was destined to decline, and with a middle-ranking football team and University. However it became an attractive destination for immigrants from India and East Africa, initially to work in the textile industry. Over the next three decades, Hindu and Moslem communities became established in inner-city Leicester. Tensions with the indigenous English population arose over employment, housing, education and racial issues, which led to urban disturbances in the early 1980s, a period during which the local economy declined.
Since then, the renaissance of Leicester has been increasingly the story of its ethnic enter-prises. Both Indian communities have established business networks, with visible retail presences, Belgrave Road for example developing a national cluster of Indian costume jewellery businesses and Narborough Road becoming a destination for curry houses and restaurants. Away from the vibrant shopfronts, progress has had a lower profile yet arguably been more significant. An increasing number of businesses are Indian-owned, and as the textile industry declined the proportion of printing, service and professional businesses has increased, with a growing number being higher value-added firms. A group of young women who felt excluded from economic and social opportunity formed their own network, the Peepul Centre, which has become a major force for social and commu¬nity enterprise and renewal. Increasingly, the economic growth, cultural activity and enterprise is driven by ethnic entrepreneurs, who have put Leicester on the cultural map.
Leicester is not unique, but the lessons if offers are that ethnic and cultural diversity creates new ideas and possibilities, whilst presenting challenges and possible conflict which need to be defused through tolerance, building trust and mutual understanding.
How can entrepreneurship be encouraged in ethnically diverse yet economically deprived areas? Public and government agencies need to be sensitive yet bold in promot¬ing equality of opportunity and seeking participation across the community. Enterprise needs to be seen and supported as a means of engaging people and groups in self and collective expression and improvement. Community support networks need to be recog¬nised as valid and useful, and offered public support where they can reach people who feel excluded from mainstream public and private services. We can conceptualise this as a collective learning experience, in which Leicester has become much more enterprising by developing inclusive approaches to enterprise which work.