Abstract
Advances in racial theories are usually sparked by social changes in specific socio-historical contexts. In contemporary Britain, for instance, the rise of a systematic study of racial and ethnic relations started in the post-war migration period when Britain witnessed population influx from the former British Empire; mainly the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent. Over six decades, alongside the transformed racial landscape, the public discourse of ‘race’ in Britain has changed. It has moved away from publically-purported racism to a more complex scenario characterised by a rosy picture of post-racial harmony, super-diverse migration patterns, voter-driven immigration debates and well-disguised cultural and institutional racism. These changes are captured by British sociology, which has seen a flourishing of scholarship engaging with ‘race’ and ethnicity projects. Meanwhile, terminologies have been coined and developed to describe racial phenomena by scholars from various subjects in the domain of social sciences and humanities. In this sense, penning a book that reflects a collective yet interdisciplinary interest is truly an ambitious task.
In his book, Key Concepts in Race and Ethnicity, Meer reflects upon these theoretical developments and encapsulates them in 28 concepts. As one of the latest contributions to the SAGE Key Concepts series, which aims to provide students with authoritative topical knowledge in the respective fields, the book adopts a shared format to organise the concepts in alphabetical order. Each concept entry can be read as a succinct essay, starting with a boxed text of summary and then proceeding to in-depth thematic discussions comprising a systematic review of academic literature, government reports and historical events. Additionally, the cross-referencing format highlights complementarities in concepts by allowing readers to trace connections between concepts. This arrangement maintains the conceptual integrity without compromising linkages among the concepts, helping achieve an organic understanding of these interrelated accounts.
Perhaps the most notable feature of this book lies in its selection of concepts. It is Meer’s objective to provide a reflexive account that delineates the intellectual framework through which racial theories is produced. To achieve this, he consciously formulates a collection of concepts where both conventional sociological interests (e.g. Race relation, Racialisation, Racism and Nationalism) and interdisciplinary concerns (e.g. Super-diversity, Intersectionality and Health and Well-being) are reflected. Other intellectual traditions that occupy stable repertories in various disciplines, such as Post-colonialism (also Diaspora and Hybridity), Recognition and Equalities and Inequalities, are also discussed in the book with a focus on their sociological meanings and their implications for racial theories. The scope of selection truly demonstrates the profound intersections of racial issues with everyday phenomena and the general ubiquity of racial politics.
Meanwhile, parallel attention is paid to the chronological order in which these concepts were coined. Meer includes both ‘novel’ concepts (e.g. Mixedness, whiteness and Intersectionality) and ‘established’ ones (e.g. Ethnicity, Blackness and Multiculturalism) to capture the evolution of racial terminologies. While this demonstrates the conceptual advancements over different historical stages, what Meer seeks to emphasise is the importance to recognise the continuity of racial phenomena. In his words, ‘our conceptualisation of “new” phenomena is only now able to register something that may have long been in evidence’ (p. 1). In achieving this, Meer chooses real world examples that demonstrate the trajectory of conceptual developments to show readers how knowledge of ‘race’ and ethnicity is reproduced over time.
Given the single-authorship of the book, however, it seems that Meer’s research interests are somehow reflected in the book. Particular attention is given to concepts rooted in political sociology and those that have frequently appeared on political agendas (e.g. Interculturalism, Integration, Citizenship and Political Participation) whereas relatively few discussions are extended to concepts addressing micro-aspects which concern the cultural, personal, lived dimensions of racial studies. Furthermore, bearing in mind the centrality of American and British scholarship in the field, Meer seems to be aware of the divergences in approaches and national experiences of the two countries in his writing, despite the fact that many discussions draw on literature and examples particularly relevant to the British context. While this might be a strength of contextualised analyses, the book could nevertheless have achieved a better universal understanding by paying more attention to experiences of other academic communities across the globe and, where necessary, by increasing the presence of examples and scholarship from the Global South.
That said, this book successfully outlines the dynamics of the field and provides an excellent account of key concepts of essential topics of ‘race’ and ethnicity. Either as an engaging introduction to the discipline or a succinct reference to extend knowledge, the book is likely to appeal to a readership from within and beyond sociology; to undergraduates and researchers alike.