International Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Mixedness and Mixing

International Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Mixedness and Mixing

Routledge
2012-05-25
224 pages
Hardback ISBN: 978-0-415-59804-0

Edited by

Suki Ali, Senior Lecturer of Sociology
London School of Economics and Political Science

Chamion Cabellero, Senior Research Fellow
Social Capital Research Group
London South Bank University

Rosalind Edwards, Professor of Sociology
University of Southampton

Miri Song, Professor of Sociology
University of Kent

People from a ‘mixed’ racial and ethnic background, and people partnering and parenting across different racial and ethnic backgrounds, are increasingly visible internationally and often construed in diametrically opposed ways. On the one hand, images of racial and ethnic diversity are posed in opposition to unity and solidarity, creating a crisis of cohesive social trust. On the other hand, there are assertions that the portrayals of segregation and conflict ignore the reality of ongoing interactions between a mix of minority and majority racial, ethnic and religious cultures, where multiculture is an ordinary, unremarkable, feature of everyday social life.

This interdisciplinary volume brings internationally well-respected researchers together to explore the different contexts and concepts underpinning discussions about mixedness and mixing. Moving beyond pathologically focused research about confused identities and a dualistic black-white conception of mixedness, the book includes chapters on:

  • Multiraciality and race classification
  • Mixed race couples
  • Mixedness in everyday life
  • Mixed race politics

International Perspectives on Racial and Ethnic Mixedness and Mixing develops theoretical perspectives and presents intellectually shaped empirical evidence that can deal with complexity and normalcy in order to move the debate onto more fruitful grounds. It is an important book for students and scholars of race and ethnicity.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction / Suki Ali, Chamion Caballero, Rosalind Edwards and Miri Song
  2. Multiraciality and census classification in global perspective / Ann Morning
  3. Mixed race across time and place: an international perspective / Ilan Katz
  4. Scaling diversity: mixed-race couples, segregation and urban America / Steven Holloway
  5. The geography of mixedness in England and Wales / Charlie Owen
  6. From ‘Draughtboard Alley’ to ‘Brown Britain’: the ordinariness of mixedness in British life / Chamion Caballero
  7. How mixedness is understood and experienced in everyday life / Peter Aspinall and Miri Song
  8. Finding value on a council estate in Nottingham: voices of white working class women / Lisa McKenzie
  9. How to find mixed people in quantitative datasets / Anne Unterreiner
  10. When ethnicity became an important family issue in Slovenia / Mateja Sedmak
  11. Same difference? Developing a critical methodological stance in critical mixed race studies / Minelle Mahtani
  12. Mixed race politics / Suki Ali
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