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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... discourse sincethe1980s(Hewitt 2005) is that thebalanceof justice has tipped away from the indigenous white population towards minorities. It is not clear from statistical analysesofpoverty, educational achievement, health, etc., that ...
... discourses of power relate to racism,class, gender, sexuality and nation.Oneof thepoints to be madeinthe following chapters is that whiteness has two simultaneous borders:one between whiteand Otherand the second separating grades of ...
... 'what is the definition of love?' or of 'sadness'. Ihave indicated that whiteness is a theoretical approach as muchas anything else,in whichitis presumed that practices and discourses engaged in reflect white dominance in a.
... the functioning of these mechanisms. Ina way, thecapacity of whiteness toshut down otheravenues of difference that count a lotinpeople'slivesis similartothepower of nationalism. Indeed, the point at which a discourse of.
An Introduction Steve Garner. of nationalism. Indeed, the point at which a discourse of whiteness in our own fieldwork 7 became most acute was where nation was invoked astheproperty (interms of space, money, culture andthe not) of ...