Abstract
Despite the predictions common in much nineteenth- and twentieth-century social theorizing that race and ethnicity would decline in importance in the modern era, we are today all too well aware of the continuing international importance of these social formations. Indeed, as the media constantly remind us, ethnic and racial diversity is linked to social conflict in many different regions of the world. Given that the patterns of ethnic and race relations are significantly influenced by their sociohistorical context, even in a rapidly globalizing world where national boundaries are increasingly porous, an important question for scholars is what commonalities exist between these patterns and the ways in which social scientists seek to understand them? The title of this book, the impressive array of authors and its length encourages the hope that it can make a major contribution to answering this question. Certainly such an ambition is evident in the two major objectives which the editors identify for this handbook. The first is to ‘map out the field of race and ethnicity as an evolving, dynamic and relevant field of scholarly debate and research … [and secondly] to provide an overview of the key debates in this field of scholarly study, the core changes that we have seen over the past few decades and at least a partial account of how the field is likely to develop and expand’ (p. 1).
To achieve this objective the Handbook is organized in four main sections where the authors typically provide a valuable historical analysis of the debates in their respective areas of concentration. The first part of the Handbook is concerned to locate the theoretical and historical foundations of the field of race and ethnic relations. Here the chapter by Knowles draws on US, British and, to a lesser extent, other English speaking sources to provide a helpful overview of the evolving debates and paradigms addressed in these sections of the academy. The next chapter, by Feagin and O’Brien, begins from the work of Du Bois to explore the role of race and ethnicity in the United States. This is followed by a chapter in which Denton and Deane consider the methodological issues which arise in studying race and ethnicity. In this chapter they draw attention to the significance of policy categories used in the census and other official documents in structuring and constructing ethnic groups. At the same time, they directly confront issues related to conceptualizing and actually measuring the key objects of study such as race, ethnicity or racism. However, as the editors note (p. 518), there is no agreed definition of these key terms by the book’s authors, a reflection of the difficulties involved in studying phenomena which are widespread and generate considerable discussion in everyday life. The final chapter in this section by Bhatt provides an introduction to the philosophical issues concerning the role of time, bodies, violence and purity in the development of ideologies sustaining racist structures.
The second part of the book examines how race and ethnicity have shaped social hierarchies such as class, nation, gender and sexuality. Virdee’s article begins this section by exploring the relationship between race and class, through drawing on US and British scholars who have explored the role of material class relations in the structuring of race and ethnicity. The focus in Anderson’s chapter is on the nexus between race and gender relations as they emerged from the US Civil Rights Movement from the 1970s. Nagel’s complementary analysis develops themes concerned with the way ‘race is sexed’ and ‘sex is raced’ (p. 132) and the role of sexual violence and conflict. The final chapter in the section, by Anthias, provides an example of intersectional analysis as she explores the way the construction of the nation is shaped by both racial and gender boundaries.
Part 3 examines the social organization of race and ethnicity through links with other social institutions and processes. The first chapter, by Kivisto, addresses the role of state policy and political relations, particularly those linked to multiculturalism and racial democracy affecting the incorporation of migrants and minorities. In doing so, he extends the focus of attention beyond the US and Britain, thus highlighting how these countries cannot be viewed as constituting universal paradigms of race and ethnicity. In the next chapter, Mutua provides a clear account of the way in which critical race theory was developed and expanded in the context of legal studies, thereby drawing attention to the interdisciplinary nature of so much of the work in ethnic and racial studies. Premdas’s treatment of ethnic conflict provides through its comparative analysis a welcome broad-based examination of the changing forms of ethnic violence and the factors associated with their emergence. Finally, Schuster considers the impact of migration on patterns of ethnic and racial relations as informed particularly by her work in Europe. In doing so she uses a wide definition of racism to argue its key relevance in shaping the migration process.
The fourth and final section of the book takes up the theme of ‘debates and new initiatives’, which it examines through looking at developments in several specific contexts. The first of these relates to the family (Zinn). This is followed by Banks and Park, who clearly illustrate how specific types of theoretical formulations addressing the gap in educational achievements between diverse groups of school students are linked to specific types of policy responses by educators seeking to overcome educational inequality. The book’s focus then shifts to religion, where Gilkes explores the role of religion in both sustaining and changing patterns of race relations as they involve African Americans. Back then provides a critical reading informed by the literature on whiteness of the murder and subsequent handling of the death of the black British youth Stephen Lawrence. In doing so, Back argues for the need to focus on the nature of racism as a key analytical concept. The discussion then shifts to Latin America, as Hanchard and Sawyer provide a description of the factors associated with Afro-Latin community mobilization in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. Finally, Alexander examines the more recent literature which has developed on diasporic identities and hybridity as scholars come increasingly to appreciate the potentially growing significance of extra-national factors on race and ethnic relations as globalization gathers pace.
In their concluding chapter the editors identify ‘trends and developments that seem likely to shape the study of racial and ethnic relations in the coming decades’. The three trends which they consider central to racial/ethnic reconfigurations and anti-racist mobilization in a global context are: global poverty, communications technologies and mass media, and politicized ethnicity and politicized religion (p. 511). Apart from these external influences they also identify four having the potential to affect future theoretical development. They are glossed as (1) colour-blind racism and modern science; (2) intersectionality in theoretical development, which considers the linkages between race/ ethnicity, class, gender and other structural dimensions of society; (3) the incorporation of non-western issues; and (4) placing more emphasis on anti-racist theory and practice (p. 518). In identifying these trends the editors acknowledge the very important reality that ‘The questions that typically preoccupy scholars of race and ethnicity usually do not emerge solely or even primarily from scholarly literature. Rather, the political and social aspects of race and ethnicity across specific local, regional, national and increasingly global contexts catalyse much work in contemporary race and ethnic studies.’
Given this acknowledgement by the editors of the importance of geographical and sociohistorical variation in contemporary race and ethnic studies it is therefore all the more disappointing that in their efforts to map out the scholarly field and provide an overview of its key debates and likely future directions, their objectives are only partially realized given the extremely narrow scope of societies and sociological theorizing which is included in the Handbook. The authors of individual chapters, and the body of literature on which they draw for their historical reviews of key debates, are almost exclusively confined to the United States and Britain. The three notable exceptions to this focus are chapters by Peter Kivisto entitled ‘Multiculturalism and racial democracy: State policies and social practices’, Ralph Premdas’s ‘Ethnic conflict’ and Michael G Hanchard and Mark Q Sawyer’s ‘No longer invisible: Afro-Latin political mobilisation’, which focuses on the situation in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. By including in their analyses examples drawn from countries other than the United States and Britain, these authors highlight to the alert reader that, whatever may be the significant features of interethnic relations in the United States or Britain, their comparability to patterns in other societies with different histories and structures of interethnic or interracial contact and different political and policy debates is problematic.
By limiting the focus of the material covered in the Handbook to developments within the United States and Britain, the potential to take advantage of the insights existing in the extensive and long tradition of research on ethnic and race relations in other parts of the world and academic community are overlooked. If attention had been paid to this wider range of literature it might have led to a valuable broadening of the discussions of race and ethnicity in the United States and Britain to include groups such as Asians and those of non-Anglo European backgrounds whose experiences cannot necessarily be assumed to resemble those of Afro-Americans in the United States and Afro-Caribbeans in Britain. This, in turn, could have rendered the analysis on theoretical debates in these two countries more relevant and interesting for readers who are attracted to the Handbook by the universality implied in its title.
Academic communities in both the United States and Britain have been involved in the construction of what is undoubtedly a major corpus of work on race and ethnicity, yet that is insufficient justification for largely ignoring developments elsewhere. As several authors note, ‘race’ has throughout much of the history of the United States since the initiation of slavery been a major leitmotif and structural feature of the society where it has also significantly become intertwined with religion (p. 414). A similar focus prioritizing ‘race’ has also been evident in Britain as a result of its colonial history in Africa, Asia, Oceania and, although ignored in this volume, Ireland. Given the importance of the local social and political setting noted above in ‘directing’ scholarly work, this book’s focus on what is conceivably a form of United States or British exceptionalism leaves the impression that these experiences are ‘universal’ in their relevance to other societies and times. This unacknowledged narrowing of the book’s focus works to the detriment of robust and fruitful theory development. This is particularly unfortunate since by cocooning scholars in these two societies from developments elsewhere, the Handbook abandons its potential to assist them in benefiting from lively debates and research foci which could extend their own intellectual boundaries and contribution. As an example, over the last decade one of the major international policy and theoretical concerns has revolved around the role of Islam in diverse societies. It has yielded a substantial and often controversial set of research literature which addresses many of the key themes of this handbook: inequality, gender, nationalism, social movements, human security and human rights, integration and social cohesion. Yet, unfortunately, there is no extended discussion of this phenomenon, even though there has been considerable scholarship both within the ‘core’ academies featured here and elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
While reviewers should avoid criticizing authors for not writing the book that they would have liked them to write, it nevertheless is important to highlight a disjuncture between ambitious claims for generality and more modest outcomes/realization. This is especially so if it implies unwarranted claims for universality of social patterns or theories. Perhaps the greatest contribution of this handbook for an international readership is the way the historical overviews in each chapter show how the specific conceptual frameworks and debates which have been pursued by scholars outside the United States and Britain reflect the specific dynamics of those two societies. If this awareness spurs scholars elsewhere to explore and expound to a wider international sociological audience the distinctive features of their own societies’ ethnic and racial relations and conceptual frameworks, then the international sociological community will be enriched.