Racism, Policy and Politics

Book excerpt: Race has been a prominent public policy issue in the UK for decades and there is growing interest in academia, but it is often caught in a repetitive cycle of progress and regress. This book analyses and bridges that gap by providing a unique insight into the relationship between race and ethnicity scholarship and the reality of ‘real world’ policy and politics. Drawing on the author’s academic work as well as his background working in public policy bodies, it goes beyond ‘impact’ debates, public sociology, diversity and post-race, to examine the changing context for researching race and racism, including media and policy debates and the ways in which institutional racism has played out in public policy settings since the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Combining theory and applied policy analysis in an accessible way, it guides the reader through the cultural and political changes in race and racism in recent decades and identifies the challenges and opportunities for policy and politically-engaged scholarship in future, clearly mapping the pitfalls and possibilities for critical work on race and racism. .