Gargi Bhattacharyya – författare

What do we do when the world breaks our hearts? Racial capitalism in the age of pandemic continues to crush ever more lives and spirits. Yet, we are told repeatedly to master, to overcome, to be resilient. Beneath this fragile pretence of coping, many of us have grown used to living with profound and fathomless sorrow.In graceful prose, Gargi Bhattacharyya navigates collective grief and how it mingles with personal tragedy. Alongside love and joy, perhaps grief is what makes us human and while its pain scrapes our wounds, its presence can help us renounce that which exists and build anew.Heartbreak is the class consciousness of our times. So, it is up to us, the heartbroken, to learn again to heal—and remake the world.

Capitalism appears to be endlessly in crisis but without ever loosening its hold on our lives. New modes of racism and exclusion emerge, but the old ones never go away. We continue to struggle to live and survive in its wake but are unable, still now, to build commonality with each other.In this incisive book, Gargi Bhattacharyya revisits debates about racial capitalism and its violence through differentiation. Taking the four lenses of prisons, borders, debt and platforms, Bhattacharyya reveals how this moment of capitalist crisis positions humans as expendable, but differentially so, in a process that remakes longstanding racialized hierarchies. Uncovering practices and techniques embedded in the shifting processes of accumulation and state power, the chapters illuminate how value is extracted from populations through non-wage routes and indebtedness.This engaging introduction to racial capitalism offers an interlocking and insightful analysis of capitalist renewal, essential for students and scholars interested in issues of race, racism and inequality.

Reviewing cutting-edge debates around racial politics and the culture and economy of globalization, this book draws together a wide range of important contemporary debates in a clear and concise way for undergraduate students.Far from concluding that racism is over, the authors contend that the forces of globalization inhabit older cultures of racial division in order to safeguard the economic interests of the privileged. Arguing that the unspoken culture of whiteness informs much that passes in the name of globalization, the book suggests that we are witnessing a reformulation of economic relations around global racisms. Alongside these shifts in economic relations, racialized identities evolve to encompass mixed heritages and mixed cultures both in personal identities and in lifestyle choices. This is one of the few texts that concentrates on the theory of race rather than politics. It looks at race in global terms, and at 'whiteness' as a part of ethnic studies.

Reviewing cutting-edge debates around racial politics and the culture and economy of globalization, this book draws together a wide range of important contemporary debates in a clear and concise way for undergraduate students.Far from concluding that racism is over, the authors contend that the forces of globalization inhabit older cultures of racial division in order to safeguard the economic interests of the privileged. Arguing that the unspoken culture of whiteness informs much that passes in the name of globalization, the book suggests that we are witnessing a reformulation of economic relations around global racisms. Alongside these shifts in economic relations, racialized identities evolve to encompass mixed heritages and mixed cultures both in personal identities and in lifestyle choices. This is one of the few texts that concentrates on the theory of race rather than politics. It looks at race in global terms, and at 'whiteness' as a part of ethnic studies.

In this broad-ranging introduction to the study of sexuality, Gargi Bhattacharyya guides students through the key theoretical debates in the area from the early history of sexology, through Foucault's technologies of self to Judith Butler on the performance of identity. Bhattacharyya shows how these theoretical positions apply to sexuality as it is experienced in contemporary society, and covers key topics such as:* the ideology of heterosexuality* sex and the state* sex, race and 'the exotic'* age and sexuality* sex education and pornography.The book argues that the study of sexuality is an essential part of broader debates on gender, race, citizenship and community. Topical and original, it provides a systematic overview of theory combined with up-to-the minute discussion of social and race issues. It gives students a lucid map of the terrain, and an exciting starting point for their own investigations.

This edited collection addresses the challenges for critically engaged research, teaching and scholarship on race and racism in a climate marked by sweeping changes in universities. Each chapter engages with debates about universities and ‘publics’, and the public orientation and reach of academic work. How do these factors play out in the work of scholars pursuing racial and social justice? What are the constraints of the marketised university or the bureaucratised political field or the celebrity-hungry arena of media culture? How can we use scholarly research and knowledge to create different and better meanings and outcomes in any of these places? With a focus on engaged and activist scholarship attuned to theory and practice, the chapters consider these issues in France, the UK, USA and Costa Rica. The chapters include discussions of teaching for social justice, collaborating and advocating for migrant and local communities and deploying scholarly knowledge in political work and the media.This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book explores the underbelly of globalisation - the illicit networks of money, drugs, people and arms that make up a multi-billion dollar illegal economy. This is the dangerous world of trafficking, identified by developed countries as the major threat to international order. In their eyes, it brings unwanted and undocumented people into the hidden crevices of affluent societies; guns and drugs are exchanged for access to the global market through the backdoor. As a result, trafficking is scrutinised, vilified, outlawed, even as free trade is celebrated.Gargi Bhattacharyya argues that trafficking is the unacknowledged underside of globalisation. The official economy relies on this illegal economy. Without it, globalisation cannot access cheap labour, it cannot reach vulnerable new markets, and it cannot finance expansion into the places most ravaged by human suffering. Traffick has become the secret basis of global expansion.

'Rigorous, impassioned and urgent' - Ash SarkarWe are in a moment of profound overlapping crises. The landscape of politics and entitlement is being rapidly remade. As movements against colonial legacies and state violence coincide with the rise of authoritarian regimes, it is the lens of racism, and the politics of race, that offers the sharpest focus. In Empire's Endgame, eight leading scholars make a powerful intervention in debates around racial capitalism and political crisis in Britain. While the 'hostile environment' policy and Brexit referendum have thrown the centrality of race into sharp relief, discussions of racism have too often focused on individual behaviours. Foregrounding instead the wider political and economic context, the authors trace the ways in which the legacies of empire have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and the instability of the nation-state. Engaging with movements such as Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall, Empire's Endgame offers both an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalisation, and a political vision that includes rather than expels in the face of crisis.

Recent debates about national identity, belonging and community cohesion can appear to suggest that ethnicity is a static entity and that ethnic difference is a source of conflict in itself - Ethnicities and Values in a Changing World presents an alternative account of ethnicity. This volume brings together an international team of leading scholars in the field of ethnic studies in order to examine innovative articulations of ethnicity and challenge the contention that ethnicity is static or that it necessarily represents traditional values and cultures. It will appeal not only to sociologists, but to anyone working in the fields of cultural studies, race and ethnicity, globalization, migration and anthropology.

Will austerity never end? This timely and insightful book argues that austerity seeks to set the terms of political and economic life for the foreseeable future, extending techniques of exclusion to ever-greater sections of the population.

Exploring the way race and gender are portrayed in popular culture, this text focuses on the representation of black women. It incorporates a discussion of the politics of representation in Britain and North America, and the shift from negative stereotypes to positive images to postmodern knowingness. The author pays particular attention to the reach of various race/gender literacies, most notably the impact of North American racial discourse on British conceptions of Asian and Afro-Caribbean femininity.

This edited collection addresses the challenges for critically engaged research, teaching and scholarship on race and racism in a climate marked by sweeping changes in universities. Each chapter engages with debates about universities and ‘publics’, and the public orientation and reach of academic work. How do these factors play out in the work of scholars pursuing racial and social justice? What are the constraints of the marketised university or the bureaucratised political field or the celebrity-hungry arena of media culture? How can we use scholarly research and knowledge to create different and better meanings and outcomes in any of these places? With a focus on engaged and activist scholarship attuned to theory and practice, the chapters consider these issues in France, the UK, USA and Costa Rica. The chapters include discussions of teaching for social justice, collaborating and advocating for migrant and local communities and deploying scholarly knowledge in political work and the media.This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Recent debates about national identity, belonging and community cohesion can appear to suggest that ethnicity is a static entity and that ethnic difference is a source of conflict in itself - Ethnicities and Values in a Changing World presents an alternative account of ethnicity. This volume brings together an international team of leading scholars in the field of ethnic studies in order to examine innovative articulations of ethnicity and challenge the contention that ethnicity is static or that it necessarily represents traditional values and cultures. It will appeal not only to sociologists, but to anyone working in the fields of cultural studies, race and ethnicity, globalization, migration and anthropology.

In July 2013, the UK government arranged for a van to drive through parts of London carrying the message 'In the UK illegally? GO HOME or face arrest.' This book tells the story of what happened next.The vans were short-lived, but they were part of an ongoing trend in government-sponsored communication designed to demonstrate toughness on immigration. The authors set out to explore the effects of such performances: on policy, on public debate, on pro-migrant and anti-racist activism, and on the everyday lives of people in Britain. This book presents their findings, and provides insights into the practice of conducting research on such a charged and sensitive topic.An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

In July 2013, the UK government arranged for a van to drive through parts of London carrying the message 'In the UK illegally? GO HOME or face arrest.' This book tells the story of what happened next.The vans were short-lived, but they were part of an ongoing trend in government-sponsored communication designed to demonstrate toughness on immigration. The authors set out to explore the effects of such performances: on policy, on public debate, on pro-migrant and anti-racist activism, and on the everyday lives of people in Britain. This book presents their findings, and provides insights into the practice of conducting research on such a charged and sensitive topic.An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

Has ‘migrant’ become an unshakeable identity for some people? How does this happen and what role does the media play in classifying individuals as ‘migrants’ rather than people? This volume denaturalises the idea of the ‘migrant’, pointing instead to the array of systems and processes that force this identity on individuals, shaping their interactions with the state and with others. Drawing on a range of empirical fieldwork carried out in the United Kingdom and Italy, the authors examine how media representations construct global conflicts in a climate of changing media habits, widespread mistrust, and fake news. How media and conflicts make migrants argues that listening to those on the sharpest end of the immigration system can provide much-needed perspective on global conflicts and inequalities.In challenging the conventional expectation for immigrants to tell sad stories about their migration journey, the book explores experiences of discrimination as well as acts of resistance. Interludes, interspersed between chapters, explore these issues through songs, jokes and images. Offering an essential account of the interplay between a climate of diversifying but distrustful media use and uncertainty about the shape of global politics, this volume argues that not only is the world itself changing rapidly, but also how people learn about the world. Understanding attitudes to migrants and other apparently ‘local’ political concerns demands a step back to consider this unstable global context of (mis)understanding.

The book explores how we understand global conflicts as they relate to the “European refugee crisis”, and draws on a range of empirical fieldwork carried out in the UK and Italy. It examines how global conflict has been constructed in both countries through media representations – in a climate of changing media habits, widespread mistrust, and fake news. In so doing, it examines the role played by historical amnesia about legacies of imperialism – and how this leads to a disavowal of responsibility for the causes why people flee their countries. The book explores how this understanding in turn shapes institutional and popular responses in receiving countries, ranging from hostility—such as the framing of refugees by politicians, as 'economic migrants' who are abusing the asylum system; to solidarity initiatives. Based on interviews and workshops with refugees in both countries, the book develops the concept of “migrantification” – in which people are made into migrants by the state, the media and members of society. In challenging the conventional expectation for immigrants to tell stories about their migration journey, the book explores experiences of discrimination as well as acts of resistance. It argues that listening to those on the sharpest end of the immigration system can provide much-needed perspective on global conflicts and inequalities which challenges common Eurocentric misconceptions. Interludes, interspersed between chapters, explore these issues in another way through songs, jokes and images.

How has capitalism created or enhanced racism? In what ways do the violent histories of slavery and empire continue to influence the allocation of global resources? Rethinking Racial Capitalism: Questions of Reproduction and Survival proposes a return to analyses of racial capitalism – the capitalism that is inextricably linked with histories of racist expropriation – and argues that it is only by tracking the interconnections between changing modes of capitalism and racism that we can hope to address the most urgent challenges of social injustice. It considers the continuing impact of global histories of racist expropriation on more recent articulations of capitalism, with a particular focus on the practices of racial capitalism, the continuing impact of uneven development, territory and border-marking, the place of reproductive labour in sustaining racial capitalism, the marketing of diversity as a consumer pleasure and the creation of supposedly 'surplus' populations.

How has capitalism created or enhanced racism? In what ways do the violent histories of slavery and empire continue to influence the allocation of global resources? Rethinking Racial Capitalism: Questions of Reproduction and Survival proposes a return to analyses of racial capitalism – the capitalism that is inextricably linked with histories of racist expropriation – and argues that it is only by tracking the interconnections between changing modes of capitalism and racism that we can hope to address the most urgent challenges of social injustice. It considers the continuing impact of global histories of racist expropriation on more recent articulations of capitalism, with a particular focus on the practices of racial capitalism, the continuing impact of uneven development, territory and border-marking, the place of reproductive labour in sustaining racial capitalism, the marketing of diversity as a consumer pleasure and the creation of supposedly 'surplus' populations.

Exploring the way race and gender are portrayed in popular culture, this text focuses on the representation of black women. It incorporates a discussion of the politics of representation in Britain and North America, and the shift from negative stereotypes to positive images to postmodern knowingness. The author pays particular attention to the reach of various race/gender literacies, most notably the impact of North American racial discourse on British conceptions of Asian and Afro-Caribbean femininity.