Race, Ethnicity and Social Theory provides a critical analysis of the main areas of scholarly research and debate about racial and ethnic relations over the past few decades. The book covers substantive areas of scholarly debate in this fast-changing field, including race and social relations, identities and the construction of the racial other, feminism and race, the relationship between race and nationalism, antisemitism, the evolution of new forms of racism, race and political representation and, more generally, the changing debates about race and ethnicity in our global environment.

The book argues that there is a need for more dialogue across national and conceptual boundaries about how to develop the theoretical tools needed to understand both the historical roots of contemporary forms of racialised social and political relations and the contemporary forms through which race is made and re-made. A key argument that runs through the book is the need to develop conceptual frameworks that can help us to make sense of the changing forms of racial and ethnic relations in contemporary societies. This means developing more dialogue across national research cultures as well as empirical research that seeks to engage with the key issues raised by contemporary theoretical debates.

The book will be of interest to both students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of this area of scholarship and to researchers of race, ethnicity and migration working in various national and disciplinary environments.

John Solomos is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. He has researched and written widely on the history and contemporary forms of race and ethnic relations in Britain, theories of race and racism, the politics of race, equal opportunity policies, multiculturalism and social policy, race and football, and racist movements and ideas. His most recent books are Race and Racism in Britain (Fourth Edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) and The Unfinished Politics of Race: Histories of Political Participation, Migration and Multiculturalism (Cambridge University Press (2022). His most recent edited books are Race and Ethnicity in Pandemic Times (Routledge, 2022), An Introduction to Sociology (SAGE, 2022), Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader (Third Edition, Routledge, 2022) and Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Racisms (Routledge, 2020). He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Ethnic and Racial Studies journal, co-editor of the Racism, Resistance and Social Change book series (Manchester University Press) and General Editor of the online The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Race and Racism series.

Race, Ethnicity and Social Theory provides a critical analysis of the main areas of scholarly research and debate about racial and ethnic relations over the past few decades. The book covers substantive areas of scholarly debate in this fast-changing field, including race and social relations, identities and the construction of the racial other, feminism and race, the relationship between race and nationalism, antisemitism, the evolution of new forms of racism, race and political representation and, more generally, the changing debates about race and ethnicity in our global environment.

The book argues that there is a need for more dialogue across national and conceptual boundaries about how to develop the theoretical tools needed to understand both the historical roots of contemporary forms of racialised social and political relations and the contemporary forms through which race is made and re-made. A key argument that runs through the book is that the need to develop conceptual frameworks that can help us to make sense of the changing forms of racial and ethnic relations in contemporary societies. This means developing more dialogue across national research cultures as well as empirical research that seeks to engage with the key issues raised by contemporary theoretical debates.

The book will be of interest to both students wanting to develop a deeper understanding of this area of scholarship and to researchers of race, ethnicity and migration working in various national and disciplinary environments.

Preface

Introduction

Origins and trajectories

Political and policy context

Situating this book

Race relations and social theory

Structuring the argument

Concepts and analytical frames

Sociologies of race in Britain

Sociological perspectives in America

Critical and interdisciplinary theories

Globalisation of scholarship and research

Postcolonial and decolonial perspectives on race

Rethinking the boundaries of race and ethnicity

Race, social relations, and class

Genesis and development

From race to class, and back again

Reconceptualising racism and social relations

Racism and society

Locating race and ethnicity in the social world

Identities, boundaries, and racialisation

Culture, identity, race

Whiteness and the racial other

Intersectional approaches to race and ethnicity

Living with difference

Race and feminist theorising

Limitations of feminist theorising and race

Whiteness and feminist theorising

Black feminist perspectives

Intersectionality, culture, and racial politics

Minority women, mobilisation, resistance

Reframing the boundaries of feminism

Nationalism, race, and nation

Constructing nations through race

Race, nation, and gender

Englishness, Britishness and beyond

Remaking the nation after colonialism

Race, culture, and national identity

Nationalism and race in the global environment

Background and context

Changing perspectives

Historical forms of antisemitism

Sociology and antisemitism

Antisemitism and the politics of racism

Political and cultural expressions

What kind of racism?

From racism to racisms

Multiculturalism, diversity, and post-race

New racial orders

Political languages and race

Culture, race, and whiteness

Racism, populism and post-race

Political inclusion and exclusion

Race, ethnicity, and politics

Representation, pluralism, and racial politics

Migrants, mobilisation, and citizenship

Political identities and social movements

Looking to the future

Race making in the present

Reframing the field of study

Emerging issues and questions

Racism and migration

Race and global inequalities

Comparative research cultures

Rethinking research priorities

Bibliography

Index