This book develops a debate around responsible social inquiry into new
racism. A variety of ways of researching new forms of racism (for
example, aversive, modern, cultural, purportedly color-blind, and new
racism) are addressed. Experiments that have been undertaken to inquire
into group identity and people's implicit bias in relation to those
perceived as "other" are critically explored and their potential
consequences reconsidered. The book also critically explores survey
research, which, it is argued, can serve to reinforce the notion of the
existence of ethnoracial groups with defined boundaries that inhere in
social life. The book considers interviewing (including focus group
interviewing) and case study research (including participant
observation/ethnography) in terms of possibilities for moving beyond new
forms of racism. Action research (defined by the understanding of an
inextricable link between knowing and acting) is examined in-depth in
terms of the hopes to "make a difference" at the moment of inquiry.
Types of retroductive logic that are used to examine underlying
structures that arguably unduly constrain people's life chances and
render human relationships inhumane are also explored. The book draws
together the different arguments; and it proposes ways in which the
design of research into new racism can better approached as well as ways
in which dialogue around processes of inquiry and the products thereof
can be better fostered. Suggestions for nurturing humane social
relationships that provide for transcultural meaning-making are threaded
through the text.
