Leicester University Involvement In Protests Against Racism In Leicester, 1959-65

This post considers the political context of Sociology at Leicester in 1959-65 through the prism of protests against racial discrimination and racist ideology. Eric Dunning noted that this was an era in which young people were deeply apprehensive about the threat of nuclear war (Dunning was a member of the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament) and that "Elias was steadfastly committed to building up a store of practically useful sociological knowledge" that could be used in future political action in that period of ideological conflict (Rojek, 2004). This concurred with Elias's view of involvement and detachment; Leicester's role, in his view, was to practice "‘detours via detachment’ followed by ‘secondary involvement’ as the only secure way of augmenting the stock of reliable knowledge, the existence of which is a vital precondition for human survival and comfort" (Dunning and Hughes, 2013). This did not preclude activity in one's personal political involvements in the present, but those involvements had to be informed by detached observation.

It is in this framework that we can understand Elias's letter to the Leicester Mercury shown below, in which he voices informed, reasoned support for campaigners against racism in Leicester:



Elias saw the issue as one of interdependence between British students and their student friends from Africa and Asia.  

In 1964, students were protesting against a colour bar when Eric's wife, Ellen Dunning, was denied service due to that discrimination:


In 1965, Eric Dunning was one of six Leicester sociology staff to write protesting a racist claim by a medical officer of health:








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