Race and Society
- Tina Patel - University of Salford, UK
Race and Society is a thoughtful and critically engaging exploration of some of the key issues around race and racialisation, which have arisen in what is considered to be a highly diverse and complex society.
With a progressive approach emphasising the social construction of race issues within a post-racial era, moving away from essentialist and polarized explanations of raced interaction, Tina Patel:
- Introduces the main concepts and key theories, including their post-developments.
- Focuses on the processes and impact of racial categorisation in contemporary society.
- Highlights the intersectional and multifaceted nature of race and related conceptualizations.
- Illustrates how race has morphed into newer forms of categorizations.
Race and Society is packed with topical examples and international case studies to engage students, along with chapter summaries, study questions and further reading. It's a highly readable and thought-provoking guide to the study of race and racialisation processes for students of sociology, criminology and related disciplines.
The contemporary power and dynamics of race and racialization require fundamental critical interrogation. This book is an excellent example of such work, providing a fascinating set of case studies and a concise and engaging text which will be invaluable to students in this field. Tina Patel has provided us with a carefully considered and authoritative pathway into and through this core sociological terrain.
Issues about race and racism have become almost daily media fare. By drawing on contemporary and high profile cases and examples from popular culture Tina Patel provides a guide that takes students from the everyday into academic debates. This makes for an engaging and lively introduction to the subject – the book will be welcomed by students seeking to come to grips with thinking about race in the contemporary world.
Race and Society is both richly theoretically informed and admirably accessible. Tina Patel’s new text is written with clarity and pedagogical flair, drawing upon up-to-date and striking examples: an invaluable resource.
Tina Patel’s book Race and Society renders race-thinking sociologically, and makes it accessible to undergraduate students. The idea of race and the associated historical knowledge making and re-making practices, rather than being a separate and compartmentalised minority experience which is diminishing, continues to grow in every more troubling and dynamic forms. Making this arena accessible and engaging for students is highly necessary, and something the book achieves really well. Covering an excellent range of topics in the aim to establish a critical understanding of constructions, practices and impacts of race and racialising practices, this book explores a wide range of issues contextualised by both historical and contemporary case studies. The case studies and study questions are most useful for facilitating group work with students, and give the text a practical ‘handbook’ feel – important for mediating what can be a potentially alienating intellectual and theoretical experience for students beginning this process
