The refusal or reception of refugees has had serious implications for the social policies and social realities of numerous countries in east and west. Exploring experiences, interpretations and practices of 'refugees,' 'the internally displaced' and 'returnees' in or emerging from societies in violent conflict, this volume challenges prevailing orthodoxies and encourages new developments in refugee studies. It also addresses the ethics and politics of interventions by professionals and policy makers, using case studies of refugees from or in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the Americas. These illustrate the dynamic nature of situations where refugees, policy- makers and practitioners interact in trying to construct new livelihoods in transforming societies. Without a proper understanding of this dynamic nature, so the volume argues overall, it is not possible to develop successful strategies for the accommodation and integration of refugees.

The refusal or reception of refugees has had serious implications for the social policies and social realities of numerous countries in east and west. Exploring experiences, interpretations and practices of 'refugees, ' 'the internally displaced' and 'returnees' in or emerging from societies in violent conflict, this volume challenges prevailing orthodoxies and encourages new developments in refugee studies. It also addresses the ethics and politics of interventions by professionals and policy makers, using case studies of refugees from or in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the Americas. These illustrate the dynamic nature of situations where refugees, policy- makers and practitioners interact in trying to construct new livelihoods in transforming societies. Without a proper understanding of this dynamic nature, so the volume argues overall, it is not possible to develop successful strategies for the accommodation and integration of refugees. Philomena Essed is Senior Researcher, University of Amsterdam and Visiting Professor of Women's Studies, University of California, Irvine.Georg Frerks is Professor of Disaster Studies, Rural Development Sociology Group, Wageningen University. Joke Schrijvers is a Social Anthropologist, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, University of Amsterdam

This international edited collection examines how racism trajectories and manifestations in different locations relate and influence each other. The book unmasks and foregrounds the ways in which notions of European Whiteness have found form in a variety of global contexts that continue to sustain racism as an operational norm resulting in exclusion, violence, human rights violations, isolation and limited full citizenship for individuals who are not racialised as White. The chapters in this book specifically implicate European Whiteness - whether attempting to reflect, negate, or obtain it - in social structures that facilitate and normalise racism. The authors interrogate the dehumanisation of Blackness, arguing that dehumanisation enables the continuation of racism in White dominated societies. As such, the book explores instances of dehumanisation across different contexts, highlighting that although the forms may be locally specific, the outcomes are continually negative for those racialised as Black. The volume is refreshingly extensive in its analyses of racism beyond Europe and the United States, including contributions from Africa, South America and Australia, and illuminates previously unexplored manifestations of racism across the globe.

This international edited collection examines how racism trajectories and manifestations in different locations relate and influence each other. The book unmasks and foregrounds the ways in which notions of European Whiteness have found form in a variety of global contexts that continue to sustain racism as an operational norm resulting in exclusion, violence, human rights violations, isolation and limited full citizenship for individuals who are not racialised as White. The chapters in this book specifically implicate European Whiteness - whether attempting to reflect, negate, or obtain it - in social structures that facilitate and normalise racism. The authors interrogate the dehumanisation of Blackness, arguing that dehumanisation enables the continuation of racism in White dominated societies. As such, the book explores instances of dehumanisation across different contexts, highlighting that although the forms may be locally specific, the outcomes are continually negative for those racialised as Black. The volume is refreshingly extensive in its analyses of racism beyond Europe and the United States, including contributions from Africa, South America and Australia, and illuminates previously unexplored manifestations of racism across the globe.

The presence of Blacks in a number of European societies has drawn increasing interest from scholars, policymakers, and the general public. This interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary collection penetrates the multifaceted Black presence in Europe, and, in so doing, complicates the notions of race, belonging, desire, and identities assumed and presumed in revealing portraits of Black experiences in a European context. In focusing on contemporary intellectual currents and themes, the contributors theorize and re-imagine a range of historical and contemporary issues related to the broader questions of blackness, diaspora, hegemony, transnationalism, and "Black Europe" itself as lived and perceived realities.

Contributors are Allison Blakely, Jacqueline Nassy Brown, Tina Campt, Fred Constant, Alessandra Di Maio, Philomena Essed, Terri Francis, Barnor Hesse, Darlene Clark Hine, Dienke Hondius, Eileen Julien, Trica Danielle Keaton, Kwame Nimako, Tiffany Ruby Patterson, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Stephen Small, Tyler Stovall, Alexander G. Weheliye, Gloria Wekker, and Michelle M. Wright.

While there are numerous studies of racism and racial inequality at the macro-level of analysis, there has been little work done on the experience of everyday racism for black people. Philomena Essed's brilliant work fills this gap. This landmark volume compares contemporary racism in the United States and the Netherlands through in-depth interview data from more than 2,000 experiences of black women. As an interdisciplinary analysis of gendered social constructions of racism, it breaks new ground. Essed problematizes and reinterprets many of the meanings and everyday practices that the majority of society has come to take for granted. She addresses crucial but largely neglected dimensions of racism: How is racism experienced in everyday situations? How do black women recognize covert expressions of racism? What knowledge of racism do black women have, and how is this knowledge acquired? How do they challenge racism in everyday life? To answer these questions, over two thousand experiences of black women are analyzed within a theoretical framework that integrates the disciplines of macro- and micro-sociology, social psychology, discourse analysis, race relations theory, and women's studies. Samples include only black women with higher education. Many of their experiences of racism involve the "elite" among the dominant group. The book seriously challenges both the notion of Dutch tolerance and the idea that U.S. racism is a problem of the past. With this concept in mind, Understanding Everyday Racism is urgent reading. Essed's volume represents a landmark in the study of race and ethnicity and will interest researchers, lecturers, students, and professionals of discourse analysis, policy and women's studies, sociology, psychology, management, psychotherapy, and qualitative methodology. "Without getting bogged down in nit-picking about the definition of racism, the author has succeeded in presenting the true face of racism and has investigated the sociology and psychology of racism. A marvellously subtle and skillful report of everyday racism." --Counselling Psychology Quarterly "In this provocative book, Philomena Essed weaves insights from psychology, sociology, discourse analysis, and women's studies into an original and important new theoretical framework. She combines a phenomenological approach of describing the experiences of individuals with a structural account of inequality." --Contemporary Psychology "Racism remains a contested concept in both popular and scholarly discourse. Typically unaware of the extent of institutionalized racism, whites generally deny that racism exists. People of color typically see things differently and interpret the dominant group perspective as insensitive and insincere. Philomena Essed's groundbreaking volume, Understanding Everyday Racism tackles this ambiguity surrounding both popular and scholarly interpretations of racism and sheds considerable light on the difference between dominant and subordinate group views. . . . Essed's volume makes an extremely important and unique contribution to our understanding of contemporary racism." --Contemporary Sociology

Contemporary discussions of race, gender, and cultural identity often seem to presuppose an exclusively American context. Yet as Philomena Essed points out in this forcefully argued book, continuing migration has given rise to ever more diverse societies. At the same time, the erosion of traditional national identities has sparked a backlash against racial and ethnic minorities. Essed examines these problems in a series of interrelated essays, urging us throughout the book to create a society in which diversity is accepted, encouraged, and made central to everyday life.