Re-Situating Identities: The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Re-Situating Identities signals a crucial move away from the extremes of statistical reductionism and textual preoccupation which have marked race and ethnic studies. Instead, inspired by an insistence on concrete social and political change, these essays seek to re-energize the field by systematic and empirically grounded investigation of the production of identities in power relationships. Working with ethnographic data, life histories, and historical documents, sociologists, anthropologists and cultural theorists from Britain, Canada, and the United States present a diverse array of scenarios from courtrooms and classrooms to diasporas, communities, state memorials, and media representations. Each scenario raises an array of critical questions of existing theory and policy: What is the impact of multiculturalist policies? Should the term "race" still be used? What are the controversies surrounding the concept of "black cultures"? What part do race and ethnicity play in the construction of collective memories? What part do notions of home play in the organization of racial exclusion? What can we learn about racism from life stories? How is nationalism mediated by the local experiences it attempts to supersede? And what does the local mean and what is its relationship to globalization?