Analysis

What is 'British culture'?


Listen Later

'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

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

AnalysisBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

195 ratings


More shows like Analysis

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,689 Listeners

From Our Own Correspondent by BBC Radio 4

From Our Own Correspondent

366 Listeners

More or Less: Behind the Stats by BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats

897 Listeners

Intelligence Squared by Intelligence Squared

Intelligence Squared

790 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,045 Listeners

In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,441 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,793 Listeners

Witness History by BBC World Service

Witness History

952 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,794 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,099 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

1,924 Listeners

BBC Inside Science by BBC Radio 4

BBC Inside Science

415 Listeners

Science Weekly by The Guardian

Science Weekly

417 Listeners

Thinking Allowed by BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed

299 Listeners

Moral Maze by BBC Radio 4

Moral Maze

67 Listeners

The Inquiry by BBC World Service

The Inquiry

744 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

243 Listeners

The Briefing Room by BBC Radio 4

The Briefing Room

69 Listeners

Newscast by BBC News

Newscast

649 Listeners

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle by BBC World Service

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

4,181 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

3,190 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

737 Listeners

Sideways by BBC Radio 4

Sideways

75 Listeners