Desire for Race

Examines the concept of race, suggesting ways in which it can free itself from outdated notions of biological essentialism.

Sarah Daynes (Author), Orville Lee (Author)

9780521680479, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 23 October 2008

256 pages
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.42 kg

'Desire for Race is a serious, innovative, thought-provoking contribution to social scientific theory of race. … Daynes and Lee have written an insightful, challenging, and unconventionally controversial book. … the authors present important future challenges for scholars of race …' Contemporary Sociology

What do people mean when they talk about race? Are they acknowledging a biological fact, a social reality, or a cultural identity? Is race real, or is it merely an illusion? This book brings analytical clarity to one of the most vexed topics in the social sciences today, arguing that race is no more than a social construction, unsupported in biological terms and upheld for the simple reason that we continue to believe in its reality. Deploying concepts from the sociology of knowledge, religion, social memory, and psychoanalysis, the authors consider the conditions that contribute to this persistence of belief and suggest ways in which the idea of race can free itself from outdated nineteenth-century notions of biological essentialism. By conceiving of race as something that is simultaneously real and unreal, this study generates a new conceptualization that will be required reading for scholars in this field.

Introduction
1. American sociology
2. Marxism
3. British social anthropology
4. British cultural studies
5. Intermediate reflections on essentialism
6. Belief and social action
7. Theorizing the racial ensemble
8. The politics of memory and race
9. Desire
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Sociology [JHB], Ethnic studies [JFSL]