Search

Drawing from David Goldberg’s attentiveness to racism and ‘postraciality’, I read the role of racial violence and terror in the making of Palestine and the Palestinians. The paper shows how Goldberg’s book unsettles racialized convictions of postraciality, and deconstructs the uncompromising global narrative of race. Following Goldberg’s analysis, this paper challenges racialized Zionist ideologies by considering how we might understand the marking of Palestinian homes, bodies, and lives that have become sites of racialized incarceration and brutality through the process of Israeli settler colonialism. I suggest that there is a need to pay close attention to mundane, everyday modes of suffering in order to understand the postraciality of racial suffering in the context of Palestine. I explore how the equation of Palestinians with non-humans requires them either to disappear or submit to racialized exercises of power. These questions allow us to critically analyze postraciality in the context of those living at the limits of humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This review ofThe Scholar Deniedby Aldon D. Morris emphasizes the importance of DuBois for the start of American empirical social research. A.D. Morris correctly shows why W.E.B. DuBois was rejected, forgotten and suppressed by white sociologists for almost 100 years. Racial prejudices and scientific racism among American sociological elites prevented both Du Bois and his work from receiving the attention they rightly deserve. But my paper accentuates the role of Du Bois in the development of sociology as an empirical social science discipline. He created and published a programme of research on the African-American population. Publishing ‘The Philadelphia Negro’, he provided an excellent example of how to do such research. He also headed the first school of sociology on the American continent at the Atlanta University from 1898 to 1910. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Foregrounding the voices of minority women in England, Scotland and France, Minority Women and Austerity provides a rich and compelling account of austerity’s lived effects. Through its intersectional analyses and historically attendant frame, the book locates minority women’s experiences of austerity not as fundamentally “new” but rather as an extension and sharpening of conditions of “routinized crisis” and inequality. In doing so it compels its readers to ask: whose crisis counts? In this review paper, I summarize the book’s key contributions. In particular, I discuss the book’s theorizations of “political racelessness” to critique the erasure of minority women’s experiences and activism. I reflect on what this means for those researching austerity and its deleterious effects, and for those participating in anti-austerity activism. I end by discussing the analytical tools that the book offers for interrogating the Left’s response to on-going austerity within a post-Brexit Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands upon some of Goldberg’s initial reflections regarding the new type of ‘subject’ that is at the heart of post-raciality. A particular attention is paid to the connection with religion, as many of the current conflicts in Europe have been articulated through the grammar of secularism and religion, especially in relationship to Islam. This observation invites us to consider how this ‘racialization of religion’ figures as a reminder of the central role of this politico-theological question in the demarcation of who counts as a proper (political) subject, and how the current debates about Islam figure as a reminder of that. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Alba and Foner’s volume is an important contribution to the transatlantic dialog. In the paper I especially focus on the presented labour market outcomes in the first generation and the accomplishments of the second generation in education. What do these outcomes tell us about integration and assimilation patterns across countries? Alba and Foner’s overall conclusion is that neither the theory of national integration models nor the theory of settler versus non-settler societies can explain the differences or similarities in outcomes across the six assessed countries. These theories, according to Alba and Foner, are debunked when empirically tested. I try to formulate what alternative explanations can be formulated based on the empirical data. Differences in historical institutional arrangements in education and the labour market can more accurately predict outcomes. Also differences in the dynamics between the mainstream population and immigrant groups in North America versus Western Europe are important. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I will critically engage those aspects of Goldberg’sAre We All Postracial Yetthat I found to be particularly generative for thinking about contemporary racisms. These foci include the place of post-racial mystification vis-à-vis liberal market capitalism, animalization and synchronic global relationalities. A case will be made for post-race being best understood in terms of how it both incorporates as well as exceeds the explanatory terrain already serviced by the concept of ‘Cultural Racism’ and/or ‘New Racism’. A unique connection to Chamayou’s recentManhuntswill also be advanced. I will read contemporary processes of post-racial animalization via Chamayou’s key contention that Power is always about who is to be theobjectof force, who shall do theenforcingandhowis it to be enforced – a historically contingent force that results in particular technologies of classification, hunting, surveillance, internment, killing and fortification. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores Virdee’s account of how racialized minorities in socialist movements ‘played an instrumental role in trying to align struggles against racism with those against class exploitation’ (p. 164). In so doing, Virdee makes an important intervention at a time when popular historians and other ideologues are colluding in the elevation of myths and – no doubt in their view – noble lies that preclude these stories. Moving through theoretical debates concerning the relationships between race and class, the nature and form of sociologies of ‘outsiders’, to political issues of mobilization, Virdee’s book successfully brings in from the margins an account the multi-ethnic character of the working class in England from the very moment of its inception. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are few sociology texts that acquire truly seminal status. This brief paper, however, reflects on one of the most celebrated and often cited works in British urban sociology. It seeks to explain: (1) the book's initial impact on debates and research in the field of ‘race and ethnic relations’; (2) the key controversies sparked by its theoretical positioning; and (3) why, and in what ways, it remains of relevance almost half a century after it was written. It concludes that there are two reasons for its continued appeal and significance. First, it placed housing firmly at the centre of debates about the position of Britain's migrant communities; second, it illustrates the potential of sociological research. At a time when controversies rage about ‘impact’, here is a work that not only contributed to our theoretical understanding of contemporary society, but also illustrated the value of ‘public sociology’ by engaging with the polity to bring about social change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Jennifer Elrick's terrific book argues that changes in Canadian immigration policy – and national identity – derive not just from politics, foreign relations, and economic pressures, but also lie in the culturally-infused boundary work of civil servants. This boundary work occurred through thousands of decisions about who "deserves" to migrate or stay in Canada, and what criteria were used to judge deservingness. This important book (1) invites comparison with other countries and time periods to identify scope conditions for bureaucratic policy-making, (2) raises questions of where bureaucratic culture comes from and how it is institutionalized in politics, and (3) opens up rich methodological conversations over how scholars should read, analyze, and understand boundary-work in archives and other qualitative data. We are also confronted with normative questions: whether and in what contexts should bureaucrats drive policy? This question is especially salient as populist, anti-immigrant politicians win office around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our reading of Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life as a work of liberation sociology, we discuss contributions to Black critical thought and praxis this book uniquely makes. Hunter and Robinson craft a Black-owned analytical approach by rezoning the United States map into a charting of African American social and cultural milestones. To apply the re-centering methodological and theoretical innovations this book encourages, we extend its themes to the contested racialized terrains of literacy and education in the US. One contemporary response to systemic educational racism, Black homeschooling, is reconceptualized as a resistance movement. Inspired by the provocative work Hunter and Robinson have done, we situate the Black homeschooling within the tradition of critical Black thought, and its enduring emancipatory warrant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, I argue that Lived Experiences of Multiculture makes a significant contribution to analyses of contemporary urban diversity, particularly in its innovative comparative research design and strong place-based analysis. However, I suggest that it needs a more thorough analysis of the forms and qualities of sociality at stake in everyday multiculture, which will help us think through the potential compatibility of the concepts of conviviality and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section reviews two books, including "Those Who Count: Expert Practices of Roma Classification," by Mihai Surdu and "Rethinking Roma: Identities, Politicisation and New Agendas," by Ian Law and Martin Kovats.

In Minority Women and Austerity, Bassel and Emejulu offer new insights into minority women’s experiences of and resistance to austerity in England, Scotland and France, exploring both the material and discursive obstacles that minority women face in their respective contexts. Importantly, the book provides frameworks through which to make sense of these experiences. This review focuses on specific insights put forward by Bassel and Emejulu’s work as a means to shed light on recent events, namely (1) the framework of “political racelessness” borrowed from David Theo Goldberg, (2) the recognition of minority women as experts and (3) the critique of the novelty frame forced upon minority women’s experiences and resistance. Finally, some critical thoughts are offered pointing to potential gaps, in light of recent developments, most notably the relation between the financial crisis and what we know as the “migration crisis”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pauli Murray’s lifelong fate was to be both ahead of her times concerning racism, heteropatriarchy, and class exploitation, yet largely behind the scenes within social movements that challenged these systems of oppression. As a truly independent African American feminist thinker, Murray’s accomplishments have long remained relatively unknown. This review essay analyses The Firebrand and the Lady and Jane Crow, two important biographies that constitute important additions to the growing corpus of scholarship on Murray’s life. These books lay a scholarly foundation for studying not only the life of this neglected African American feminist intellectual activist, but also how her ideas and actions catalyzed social change. Drawing upon contemporary anti-racist, feminist and intersectional frameworks, this essay analyses how both books draw upon race, class, gender, and sexuality as categories of analysis, yet place different analytical weight on these concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State and the Grassroots presents the results of studies of immigrant organizations engaged in transnational development initiatives from thirteen different immigrant nationalities in five countries of reception. The scale of this endeavour is unprecedented. The articles represent the fruit of a longterm project known as the Comparative Immigration Organizations Project (CIOP), which was launched by the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University in the early 2000s. The State and the Grassroots makes significant analytical and methodological contributions to the migration studies field, particularly to the study of the migration-development nexus and of the relationship between assimilation/integration and transnationalism. This volume will be useful for upper-division undergraduates, as well as for graduate students and seasoned researchers interested in this field, particularly at this time of heightened anxiety about immigration and national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical review of Alba and Foner'sStrangers No More(2015) which focuses on questioning their comparative assimilation of European cases of immigrant integration to the North American, specifically U.S., experience. While this may work in terms of how national immigrant integration has mitigated over time racial discrimination for older, post-colonial migrants, it misrepresents the complex differentiations involved in the super-diversity of recent ‘new’ migrations within and to Europe. In particular, the variety of types and origins of recent migration is lost in their understanding of the U.K. case, with problems linked to their interpretation of data about minorities and foreigners in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If the postracial is a coherent formation, it is produced not by ideological lock-step but by distributed affinities and relations in a transnational space of interconnection and exchange. The neoliberal erasure of ‘ … the structural conditions of racial reproduction and racist articulation’ (34) and the clouding of the historicity of racisms produces postraciality as ‘the illusion that the dream of the nonracial has already been realized’ (180). This illusion is familiar in writing on the postracial that focuses on the denial – be it through the averted gaze of ‘color-blindness’, or the official state prohibition of racism, or the triumphalism of strategic declarations of the ‘end of racism’ – of enduring racialized inequality. Goldberg’s advance is to explore how the illusion has become increasingly weaponized; that far from signalling the end of race, it represents an emergent ‘neo-raciality, racism’s extension if not resurrection’ (24). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This review engages with Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou’sThe Asian American Achievement Paradoxto consider how ethnic culture matters for social mobility among the immigrant second generation. It describes the strengths and contributions of the book, connects it to broader debates on culture, poverty, and mobility, and draws on my own research on the second generation in New York City. It highlights three additional cultural mechanisms that underlie the Chinese (or Asian) second-generation advantage: social class heterogeneity in the co-ethnic community, intergenerational support in the immigrant family, and the belief in achievements as redemption for parental sacrifice. While pointing out the similarities and differences between Los Angeles and New York, it also suggests possible applications of these cultural mechanisms in explaining second-generation achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Notably absent from assimilation scholarship are analyses that seriously engage, rather than dismiss, cultural explanations for differences in group outcomes. That dismissal has left the assimilation scholars ill-equipped to thoroughly respond to popular and quasi-academic explanations that rely on an all-encompassing view of culture to explain immigrant group differences in socioeconomic outcomes. Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou’sThe Asian American Achievement Paradoxembraces the cultural explanation, but traces the root of an ethnoracial culture to its class origins. In so doing, Lee and Zhou force scholars to contend seriously with ‘culture’ as part of a larger explanation for group outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I suggest that despite its conceptual and empirical ambitions,The Cultural Matrixis a book painfully out of touch with the times. Far from avoiding the racist assumptions of sociologists who portrayed African-Americans as socially and culturally deficient for most of the twentieth century,The Cultural Matrixis vulnerable to some of the same anti-black impulses that have animated social analysis since the establishment of the discipline. Specifically, I argue that the Patterson and Fosse engage in what I call ‘kindler, gentler pathologizing' – a way of depicting African-Americans as responsible for their own uplift, while still paying lip service to the structural barriers imposed by racism. Further, I explain the role of racial asymmetries in producing a portrait of black youth that minimizes racism. Finally, I discuss the authors’ arguments in light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]