New Racial Landscapes ─ Contemporary Britain and the Neoliberal Conjuncture

The chapters in this volume examine the racial and ethnic landscape of Britain in a contemporary era of neoliberalism and financial crisis. A key aspect of neoliberal thought is the belief that we live in a ‘post-racial’ society in which the problems of racism and xenophobia have been overcome. However, cultural retrenchment and coded xenophobia have been sweeping the political terrain, accompanied by ‘new racisms’ and ‘new racial subjects’ that only close contextual analysis can unpick. The scholarship contained in this collection challenges those who suggest that we live in a post-racial era. By focusing on particular locations in Britain at a particular moment, the volume explores local stories of ‘race’ and racism across changing sociopolitical ground. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of race, racism, diaspora, multiculturalism, post-colonialism, transnationalism and post-race.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Malcolm James is a lecturer in Sociology at City University London, UK. His interests are in youth, racialisation and urban multiculture.

Helen Kim is a Fellow in Sociology at the London School of Economics, UK. Her interests are in diaspora, migration, youth cultures and urban multiculture. She is the author of ‘Making Diaspora in a Global City: South Asian Youth Cultures in London’ (2014).

Victoria Redclift is a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey, UK. Her interests are in migration, ethnicity and political exclusion. She is the author of ‘Statelessness and citizenship: Camps and the creation of political space’ (2013).