Exploring the intersection of racism and anti-racism, this analysis delves into the cultural consumption patterns of the Black British middle class. It integrates critical race theory and cultural sociology to reveal how these dynamics shape experiences and identities within this demographic. The book offers a nuanced understanding of the cultural landscape, highlighting the complexities faced by Black British individuals as they navigate societal perceptions and their own cultural preferences.
This book analyses how racism and anti-racism affects Black British middle class cultural consumption, incorporating insights from critical race theory and cultural sociology. -- .
Sociology was institutionalized as a discipline at the height of global colonialism and imperialism. Over a century later, sociology is yet to shake off its commitment to a colonial logic. This book explores why, and how, sociology needs to be decolonized. It analyses how sociology was integral in reproducing the colonial order, as dominant sociologists constructed theories either assuming or proving the supposed barbarity and backwardness of colonized people. Ali Meghji reveals how colonialism continues to shape the discipline today, dominating both social theory and the practice of sociology, how exporting the Eurocentric sociological canon erased social theories from the Global South, and how sociologists continue to ignore the relevance of coloniality in their work. This critique and guide will be necessary reading for any student or proponent of sociology. In conversation with other decolonial advocates, Meghji provides key suggestions for what the sociological community can do to decolonize sociology going forward. Because, with curriculum reform and innovative teaching, it is possible to make sociology more equitable on a global scale.
"This book demonstrates how decolonial theory and critical race theory can be used together to better explain global social problems than either could alone. It applies them in combination to theorize capital accumulation, the rise of right-wing populist nationalism, the COVID pandemic, and the climate crisis"--
Far from its origins in US legal studies in the 1980s, critical race theory has grown to become a leading approach to the analysis of racial inequality around the world. It has courted much controversy along the way, often misunderstood and poorly defined. So what precisely is critical race theory and what makes it different from other theories of race, racialization and racism? In this incisive book, Ali Meghji defines the contours of critical race theory through the notion of the 'racialized social system'. He thereby excavates a solid social theory that clears up many empirical and conceptual questions that continue to surface, offering a flexible, practical model for studying structural racism. In making his case, Meghji pays attention to the multiple dimensions of the racialized social system, focusing on core phenomena such as interaction orders, material interests, ideologies, emotions, and organizations. In a context where any work mentioning 'race' gets defined as critical race theory, this book expounds an approach that promises to be more generative for the social scientific study of race.