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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... of whiteness. Much of this literature has focused on the situation in the USA but there has been arapid growthof interestin other countries. This book highlights some ... on racism, immigration, whiteness andcolonialism. W h i t e n e s s A.
... racism. This wouldbetrue even iftheacademic studyof whiteness did not exist. Asitdoes,the debate about whether using whiteness actually contributes anything will goon.Sara Ahmed's (2004) influential article, for example, declareswhiteness ...
... of white identities may suspend other social divisions andlink people whoshare whitenesstodominant social locations, even though the actors are themselvesin positions ofrelativepowerlessness. That argumentispresented inthree sections of ...
... of racism. Indeed,throughout theargument Iwillbe stressing the necessity ofkeeping focusedon the unique set of power ... of whiteness. The initial impetus for theorisingwhiteness was an antiracist recasting oftheworld through acritique ...
... of whiteness studies wilfully displaces theargument fromthe complexity ofgroup relations to the focus on responses to racism. Studying whiteness links the realmof individual prejudices withthesystemic patterns of discrimination ...