Overview

This text presents a detailed analysis of the vocabulary of racism (prejudice, discrimination, segregation and violence), arguing that racism is not reducible to these elementary forms. The author shows how the experiences of institutionalized racism in America and anti-semitism in Europe can be analyzed to provide an understanding of the complex transition from race to racism. As cultural identities become more fragmented in societies and as the social relations defined by industrial capitalism are in decline, so too are ideas of progress and universality. It is in this context of postmodern social and economic flux that Wieviorka puts forward a definition of racism. He demonstrates that racism has to be understood as an action to factors fixed in the dislocation between the social and the communal.

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9780803978812

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Reviews

`Michel Wieviorka is one of France′s leading sociologists. Strongly influenced by the theoretical perspectives of Touraine, he is nevertheless a distinctive voice and his writing on several different subjects is original and provocative. Responding to the new expression of racism in France over the past decade or more, with this book, he has stimulated a debate about the meaning and scope of the concept of racism which articulates with the writing of other leading French sociologists and philosophers. But Wieviorka′s concerns and focus are not just with France but with the nature and effects of racism in the late twentieth century and it therefore warrants wide attention′ - Professor Robert Miles, University of Glasgow

'Michel Wieviorka is one of France's leading sociologists. Strongly influenced by the theoretical perspectives of Touraine, he is nevertheless a distinctive voice and his writing on several different subjects is original and provocative. Responding to the new expression of racism in France over the past decade or more, with this book, he has stimulated a debate about the meaning and scope of the concept of racism which articulates with the writing of other leading French sociologists and philosophers. But Wieviorka's concerns and focus are not just with France but with the nature and effects of racism in the late twentieth century and it therefore warrants wide attention' - Professor Robert Miles, University of Glasgow 'Michel Wieviorka is one of France's leading sociologists. Strongly influenced by the theoretical perspectives of Touraine, he is nevertheless a distinctive voice and his writing on several different subjects is original and provocative. Responding to the new expression of racism in France over the past decade or more, with this book, he has stimulated a debate about the meaning and scope of the concept of racism which articulates with the writing of other leading French sociologists and philosophers. But Wieviorka's concerns and focus are not just with France but with the nature and effects of racism in the late twentieth century and it therefore warrants wide attention' - Professor Robert Miles, University of Glasgow

'Michel Wieviorka is one of France's leading sociologists. Strongly influenced by the theoretical perspectives of Touraine, he is nevertheless a distinctive voice and his writing on several different subjects is original and provocative. Responding to the new expression of racism in France over the past decade or more, with this book, he has stimulated a debate about the meaning and scope of the concept of racism which articulates with the writing of other leading French sociologists and philosophers. But Wieviorka's concerns and focus are not just with France but with the nature and effects of racism in the late twentieth century and it therefore warrants wide attention' - Professor Robert Miles, University of Glasgow

Author Information

Michel Wieviorka is president of the International Sociological Association.

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