Re-configuring Anti-racism

In our interconnected world of increasing racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, racism is an enduring phenomenon with a range of pernicious consequences for individuals, communities, and societies. Despite considerable scholarly attention to race and racism, there has been relatively little focus on anti-racism, defined as the theory and practice of addressing racism, counteracting its detrimental effects, or envisaging its possible alternatives.

This edited collection explores the re-configuration of anti-racism in order to better combat racism in modern neo-liberal societies. Should anti-racism focus on tolerance, harmony, inclusion, equality, participation, recognition acknowledgement, indifference, and/or justice? What is the role of everyday race labour, the potentials and pitfalls of post-raciality, and the potential of alter-racism via humour, viscerality, embodiment, and affective atmospheres? The eight chapters forming this collection bring together scholars from cultural studies, geography, philosophy, political science, race relations, and sociology to debate key epistemologies, practices, and contradictions pertaining to anti-racism as a global endeavour. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Yin Paradies is Professor of Race Relations and Deputy Director (research) at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.