Whiteness: An IntroductionWhat is whiteness? Why is it worth using as a tool in the social sciences? Making sociological sense of the idea of whiteness, this book skilfully argues how this concept can help us understand contemporary societies. If one of sociology's objectives is to make the familiar unfamiliar in order to gain heightened understanding, then whiteness offers a perfect opportunity to do so. Leaning firstly on the North American corpus, this key book critically engages with writings on the formation of white identities in Britain, Ireland and the Americas, using multidisciplinary sources. Empirical work done in the UK, including the author's own, is developed in order to suggest how whiteness functions in Britain. Bringing an emphasis on empirical work to a heavily theorized area, this important text synthesizes and reviews existing work, incorporates multidisciplinary sources of interest to those outside the sociology sphere, and features concise chapters which will engage undergraduates. Garner deftly argues that whiteness is a multifaceted, contingent and fluid identity, and that it must be incorporated into any contemporary understandings of racism as a system of power relationships in both its local and global forms. |
From inside the book
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... contemporary understandings of racism as asystem ofpower relationships.This innovative book: providesa critical review of key themes for the multidisciplinary literature on whiteness; utilisesabalanced combination of theory, existing ...
... contemporary colourblind western democracies. Indeed, seeing 'race' atallisoften imagined as beingracistin itself. Likegender ('Surely womenare nowequal to men?'),andclass ('Surely that is adivisive oldfashioned wayof looking atthe ...
... contemporary situation isviewednot as of disproportionate power being heldby a small minorityofwhite people,butofallthebreaks being given to everyone else.The loss ofeconomic and cultural status can thus be displaced onto 'people ...
... contemporary writers. One could emerge from aninitial readingofthe material convincedthat thewhiteness studies paradigm isso specificto America's largely bipolarracial arena that it issimply anexotic outpost of academia with little to ...
... contemporary forms,are constructed:the ruleofindividual responsibility.This means, you get whatyoudeserve,both for hard work andforidleness. Yet, obviously ifyouarea Hispanic earning US$90k and not getting loans thatare offered to white ...