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. |
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... on the situation in the USA but there has been arapid growthof interestin other countries. This book highlights some of thekey features of these debates. The author, Steve Garner, arguesthat whiteness is a multifacetedand fluid identity ...
... on the proverbial shoulders of giants, who are, in this case,inter alia: James Baldwin, W.E.B.Du Bois, Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Cheryl Harris, David Roediger, John Hartigan, Ruth Frankenberg, Charles Mills, and RichardDyer. At ...
... onthe foundational text(s). Ihavetoconfess that if such a definition is extended, Iama fundamentalist on the issue of whiteness. The initial impetus for theorisingwhiteness was an antiracist recasting oftheworld through acritique of ...
... on the side of the oppressed in this process, inrelation to the structures that place parameters on collective development, progressand freedoms, youare inescapably granted advantages (regardless ofgender, ageorclass) that youwould not ...
... onthe power to universalizeparticularisms relatedtoa specific historical tradition by makingthem (mis)understood as universallytrue'.4 They are writing primarily aboutthe impositionof multiculturalism inits American sense,as wellasthe ...