THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS IN LONDON: IDEOLOGY, POWER AND ASSOCIATIONS

This research examines how Black British middle-class (BBMC) professionals in London create, sustain, and give meaning to Black-only associations, treating these spaces as counterpublics where racial identity, community responsibility, and political ideas are produced. Using participant observation and semi-structured interviews across four professional groups, the study analyses how participants construct a panethnic Black identity, articulate the problems facing Black communities, and develop solutions grounded in racial uplift ideology. The research finds that these associations cultivate three interconnected pillars of uplift—group-making, self-help, and institution-building— yet operate within a neoliberal context that encourages individual responsibility, market-oriented strategies, and political avoidance. Although participants recognise institutional racism and describe barriers to mobility, they prioritise cultural change, personal development, and voluntary action over structural reform or collective political mobilisation. This ideological orientation shapes the organisational life of the groups, which function as discursive and symbolic sites of Black middle-class identity rather than engines of policy or movement activism. The thesis contributes to Black British middle-class scholarship by shifting analytic attention from experiences in White-majority institutions to intraracial organisational settings, showing how racial uplift ideology mediates class and racial identities for Black professionals.