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Key policy areas will be affected by the dynamic and volatile nature of UK identities, report finds

24 Jan 2013 01:30 PM

The rapidly-changing nature of identities in the UK will have an important impact on future policies in crime, environment, health, education and skills, social mobility, social integration, and extremism, according to a recent report.

The government advisory programme, Foresight, has published the final report of its Future Identities project, which was established to review and analyse the latest scientific evidence on changing identities in the UK and their implications for policy makers.

Over the next ten years, baby boomers will move into retirement and young people raised in the digital age will enter adulthood. Dual ethnic and national identities will be more commonplace, and society will – slowly but surely – become more secular. These changing identities will also be influenced by how people use new technology – through unprecedented levels of online connectivity, the spread of social media and an increase in personal information available via the web.

The Foresight report was based on submissions from leading UK and international experts, including contributions from the Institute of Education (IOE). Professor Lucinda Platt, Principal Investigator of the Millennium Cohort Study, contributed a review of how minority ethnic groups' complex identities are changing across generations.

While dual-identities are becoming the norm among minority ethnic groups, Lucinda emphasised that the pace of change across generations in feelings of ethnic, religious and British identity is different. For example the importance of religious affiliation is relatively unchanged across generations (although with a slight trend towards secularisation), whereas feelings of Britishness are becoming stronger from one generation to the next.

The Foresight report urges policy makers to take note of this trend towards greater social plurality, which could lead to less cohesive UK communities in 10 years' time. However, the growing diversity could strengthen some group identities and create new ones, especially as a result of greater online connectivity.

"The economic downturn, the effects of globalisation, and increasing migration have all been influential to how people see themselves and others, while the impact of social media and modern communications technology have created a new 'digital' UK" said Sir John Beddington, the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor and head of the Government Office for Science. "This report provides an important opportunity for the Government to consider how identities in the UK are changing and the possible implications for policy making."

The Future Identities project was overseen by a lead expert group, including Professor Ann Phoenix of the Institute of Education.

The full report, executive summary and the twenty supporting evidence reviews are available on the Foresight website.