Whiteness

by Steve Garner

What is whiteness? Why is it worth using as a tool in the social sciences? Making sociological sense of the idea of whiteness, this book skilfully argues how this concept can help us understand contemporary societies. If one of sociology's objectives is to make the familiar unfamiliar in order to gain heightened understanding, then whiteness offers a perfect opportunity to do so. Leaning firstly on the North American corpus, this key book critically engages with writings on the formation of white identities in Britain, Ireland and the Americas, using multidisciplinary sources. Empirical work done in the UK, including the author's own, is developed in order to suggest how whiteness functions in Britain. Bringing an emphasis on empirical work to a heavily theorized area, this important text synthesizes and reviews existing work, incorporates multidisciplinary sources of interest to those outside the sociology sphere, and features concise chapters which will engage undergraduates. Garner deftly argues that whiteness is a multifaceted, contingent and fluid identity, and that it must be incorporated into any contemporary understandings of racism as a system of power relationships in both its local and global forms.

Genres: Academic

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2007

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garner does a decent job of discussing "whiteness" as a social scientific critical perspective and distinguishes this perspective from whiteness as identity. He also does a nice job of discussing the foundational associations that allow whiteness to function as a position of power and offers these associations and binaries as tools for scholars in critical work. He also argues for more empirical qualitative research in this field to back up and enrich much of the theory discussions that have been happening in this field. In addition, he argues that this field must study whiteness around the world and too much research has been focused only in the United States which has, like all countries, a unique racial structure.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

the subtitle is "an introduction," and Garner means it. suitable for an undergraduate class on race and a good resource to get a feel for many of the important works on white studies; but it leaves something to be desired for those working on race and whiteness at the graduate level.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent introduction, mostly a summary of what has already been studied and written concerning whiteness.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introductory book on whiteness.