Ethnic and Racial Studies - Böcker

Projects of democratic reform in the Middle East and North Africa have said little about the place of minorities and minority rights in their vision of reform, implying that these issues are best deferred to some indefinite future. While many people describe the Arab Spring as a ‘battle for pluralism’, there is a reluctance to discuss what this pluralism might actually mean for the political claims of minorities, for fear of triggering divisive conflicts and undemocratic tendencies. Is there an alternative to this fearful deferral of minority politics? Can we imagine ‘transformative minority politics’ – that is, a form of minority politics that strengthens democratic reform in the region, and that helps deepen a culture of human rights and democratic citizenship? This volume explores whether this is indeed a realistic prospect in the Middle East and North Africa, examining cases that include the Amazigh in North Africa, the Copts in Egypt, the Kurds in Iraq, the Palestinians in Israel, the ‘minoritarian’ regimes in Syria and Bahrain, and various ethnic minorities in Iran. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Bringing together ten research based contributions, Muslims, Migration and Citizenship addresses questions about the changing experiences of Muslim communities, or specific groups within them, in various national and localised environments. Although not an exhaustive survey of the broad range of scholarly research in this evolving field, this book covers issues that are likely to be of some importance in the coming period. In particular, the contributors highlight the complexity of the experiences of Muslim communities in different national and cultural environments, and the evolution of both policy discourses and debates in civil society. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

In our interconnected world of increasing racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, racism is an enduring phenomenon with a range of pernicious consequences for individuals, communities, and societies. Despite considerable scholarly attention to race and racism, there has been relatively little focus on anti-racism, defined as the theory and practice of addressing racism, counteracting its detrimental effects, or envisaging its possible alternatives. This edited collection explores the re-configuration of anti-racism in order to better combat racism in modern neo-liberal societies. Should anti-racism focus on tolerance, harmony, inclusion, equality, participation, recognition acknowledgement, indifference, and/or justice? What is the role of everyday race labour, the potentials and pitfalls of post-raciality, and the potential of alter-racism via humour, viscerality, embodiment, and affective atmospheres? The eight chapters forming this collection bring together scholars from cultural studies, geography, philosophy, political science, race relations, and sociology to debate key epistemologies, practices, and contradictions pertaining to anti-racism as a global endeavour. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Markers of identity define human groups: who belongs and who is excluded. These markers are often overt – language, material culture, patterns of behaviour – and are carefully nurtured between generations; other times they can be invisible, intangible, or unconscious. Such markers of identity also travel, and can be curated, distilled, or reworked in new lands and in new cultural environments. It has always been thus: markers of identity are often central to the ties that bind dispersed, diasporic communities across lands and through time. This book brings together research that discusses a very wide range of scholarly approaches, periods, and places – from the Viking diaspora in the north Atlantic, and Anglo-Saxon treasure hoards, to what DNA can and cannot reveal about human identity, to modern, multicultural Martinique, East London, and urban Africa, and the effect of the absence of geopolitical identity, of statelessness, among the Roma and Palestinians – to better understand how markers of identity contribute to the impact of diasporas. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

The classification of ethnic identities (minzu) remains controversial in China. Categories established in the 1950s are still used by the state to administer minority areas, despite the existence of a complicated web of subjective identities which potentially undermines efforts to use these categories effectively. This book offers a new, and sometimes unusual, perspective on ethnic relations in China, and on the interactions between China and other cultures. Two major themes run through the book: the classification of ethnic minorities in China by the state, and the implications of this practice; and the way in which China and the Chinese are seen by outsiders as well as insiders. The contributors, whose research is all based on fieldwork with the relevant communities, are from a wide range of backgrounds and are currently based in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Germany. The subjects of their research are the politics of minority classification in the People’s Republic of China; questions of identity in Xinjiang; Kazakhstani perceptions of China and the Chinese; Chinese Muslims in Malaysia; and the growing Chinese diaspora in Africa. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

The War on Terror has established a new global order of political structures, legislation, and technologies designed to spy on the world’s Muslims. This book explains the origins and trajectories of this political system. The contributors argue that a constellation of Western ideas about Muslims have evolved over time to produce an insatiable desire for all-pervasive, ever-expanding surveillance in our contemporary moment. The book posits that the surveillance order is not, however, only the result of conceptions of Muslims. It is, rather, the outcome of centuries of European thought regarding religion, governance, and revolution. Islamophobia and Surveillance traverses the existential desire for wakeful vigilance, the religious wars of early modern Europe, colonial India, the Balkan frontier of the EU, and the walls of the United States-Mexico border.The consequences of the new surveillance order transcend the West’s Muslim Question and threaten the very existence of the liberal democratic state. This book will, therefore, be of interest to those studying a range of subjects related to international co-operation, modern political systems, and security studies, as well as Islamophobia. Islamophobia and Surveillance was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Intersectionality and Ethnic Entrepreneurship brings together a group of eminent and up-and-coming young scholars who apply an intersectional perspective to the study of ethnic entrepreneurship. Against the traditional approach’s emphasis on ethnicity and its primacy, which tends to conflate ethnicity with other social groupings (i.e., social class), considers their effect as an additive or secondary consequence only (i.e., gender), or ignores their influence altogether (i.e., race), the studies in this volume recognize that multiple dimensions of identity intermix to condition entrepreneurial outcomes. Starting with the premise that systems of oppression and privilege, specifically capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, are endemic to the American social structure, the works in this volume recognize that these interlocking systems of inequality condition the life chances of entrepreneurs from diverse social locations differently, even among members of the same ethnic group. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book seeks to explore the potentialities of strengthening a new field of research within migration and diversity studies, that of immigrant incorporation in political parties. The point of departure of all the contributions to this volume is that there is what we call a ‘diversity gap’ between political parties as public representative organisations and diversity dynamics in democratic societies. Exploring the current strategies of political parties developing first conceptual frameworks, theoretical foundations and empirical hypothesis and approaches, this book examines case studies from four European countries: Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Using detailed examples from Finland, Hungary, Canada and the UK, this book explores relationships between the racialization and discrimination experienced by heterogeneous European Roma populations, and the processes of everyday bordering embedded in state policies and media discourses. In the context of the long histories of discrimination experienced by Roma people across Europe, the chapters engage with changing EU policies, including the recent tensions between inter-European de-bordering and the selective immigration policies introduced as different states react to EU free movement. Employing an intersectional analysis, the authors capture the perspectives of differentially situated people and associated discourses to examine the continuing racism experienced by European Roma citizens in their interaction with bordering technologies. They examine the homogenizing ‘racial othering’ and construction of Roma as a ‘criminal category’ that co-exists with the differentiations made between ‘indigenous’ and ‘migrant’ Roma central to dominant bordering discourses and the contestations of different Roma populations. Chapters focus on Roma activism and the media, the exclusion of Roma residents via urban regeneration and welfare provision, and powerful media and political discourses about Roma populations in different national and transnational contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Presenting several in-depth studies, this book explores how super-diversity operates in every-day relations and interactions in a variety of urban settings in Western Europe and the United States. The contributors raise a broad range of questions about the nature and effects of super-diversity. They ask if a quantitative increase in demographic diversity makes a qualitative difference in how diversity is experienced in urban neighborhoods, and what are the consequences of demographic change when people from a wide range of countries and social backgrounds live together in urban neighborhoods. The question at the core of the book is to what extent, and in what contexts, super-diversity leads to either the normalization of diversity or to added hostility towards and amongst those in different ethnic, racial, and religious groups. In cases where there is no particular ethno-racial or religious majority, are certain long-established groups able to continue to exert economic and political power, and is this continued economic and political dominance actually often facilitated by super-diversity? With contributions from a number of European countries as well as the USA, this book will be of interest to researchers studying contemporary migration and ethnic diversity. It will also spark discussion amongst those focusing on multiculturalism in urban environments. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book focuses on the mechanisms that undergird the operation of racialization and works to empirically define the specific mechanisms by which racialization outside of black-white paradigm operates. The contributors highlight the advantages and benefits of using case studies from outside of the black-white racial boundary in the social scientific study of racism, racial identity, racial meaning, and racial representation. Their contributions can be grouped into three specific areas of focus: the investigation of the relationship between racialization and the state; the interplay between racialization and identities; and the role of racialization in the media. Taken together, the book lays out a roadmap for future study of racialization and the study of race beyond the racial categories of black and whiteServing as a guiding point to future research, this book will be of interest to all scholars of race, and those seeking to understand the ideologies, actions, interactions, structures and social practices associated with racialization. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This volume brings together the work of social scientists and music scholars examining the role of migrant and migrant descended communities in the production and consumption of popular music in Europe and North America. The contributions to the collection include studies of language and local identity in hip hop in Liege and Montreal; the politics of Mexican folk music in Los Angeles; the remaking of ethnic boundaries in Naples; the changing meanings of Tango in the Argentine diaspora and of Alevi music among Turks in Germany; the history of Soca in Brooklyn; and the recreation of ‘American’ culture by the children of immigrants on the Broadway stage. Taken together, these works demonstrate how music affords us a window onto local culture, social relations and community politics in the diverse cities of immigrant receiving societies. Music is often one of the first arenas in which populations encounter newcomers, a place where ideas about identity can be reformulated and reimagined, and a field in which innovation and hybridity are often highly valued. This book highlights why it is a subject worthy of more attention from students of racial and ethnic relations in diverse societies. It was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book brings together the most recent and the most comprehensive collection of articles on a population at risk: the children of immigrants in the United States, especially those children whose parents came to the country without legal authorization. The end of compassion and the shift to temporary migration to source the labour needs of the American economy have brought in their wake a series of consequences, some of which were predictable and others unexpected. The chapters fully document the nature and implications of the enforcement initiatives implemented by the American government in recent years and their interaction with state policies and local contexts of reception. This collection provides an exhaustive testimony of the severe conditions faced by unauthorized migrant families and their children today and their repercussions in both countries of origin and those where they currently live. The End of Compassion will be of interest to researchers and academics studying migration in the United States and ethnic and racial studies, and to advanced students of sociology, public policy, law and political science. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Transitional justice and diaspora studies are interdisciplinary and expanding fields of study. Finding the right combination of mechanisms to forward transitional justice in post-conflict societies is an ongoing challenge for states and affected populations. Diasporas, as non-state actors with increased agency in homelands, host-lands, and other global locations, engage with their past from a distance, but their actions are little understood. Diaspora Mobilizations for Transitional Justice develops a novel framework to demonstrate how diasporas connect with local actors in transitional justice processes through a variety of mechanisms and their underlying analytical rationales—emotional, cognitive, symbolic/value-based, strategic, and networks-based. Mechanisms featured here are: thin sympathetic response and chosen trauma, fear and hope, contact and framing, cooperation and coalition-building, brokerage, patronage, and connective action, among others. The contributors discuss the role of diasporas in truth commissions, memorialization, recognition of genocides and other human rights atrocities, as well as their abilities to affect transitional justice from afar by holding particular attitudes, or upon return temporarily or for good. This book sheds light on how diasporas’ contextual embeddedness shapes their mobilization strategies, and features empirical evidence from Europe, United States and Canada, as well as from conflict and postconflict polities in the Balkans, Middle East, Eurasia and Latin America. It was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Transitional justice and diaspora studies are interdisciplinary and expanding fields of study. Finding the right combination of mechanisms to forward transitional justice in post-conflict societies is an ongoing challenge for states and affected populations. Diasporas, as non-state actors with increased agency in homelands, host-lands, and other global locations, engage with their past from a distance, but their actions are little understood. Diaspora Mobilizations for Transitional Justice develops a novel framework to demonstrate how diasporas connect with local actors in transitional justice processes through a variety of mechanisms and their underlying analytical rationales—emotional, cognitive, symbolic/value-based, strategic, and networks-based. Mechanisms featured here are: thin sympathetic response and chosen trauma, fear and hope, contact and framing, cooperation and coalition-building, brokerage, patronage, and connective action, among others. The contributors discuss the role of diasporas in truth commissions, memorialization, recognition of genocides and other human rights atrocities, as well as their abilities to affect transitional justice from afar by holding particular attitudes, or upon return temporarily or for good. This book sheds light on how diasporas’ contextual embeddedness shapes their mobilization strategies, and features empirical evidence from Europe, United States and Canada, as well as from conflict and postconflict polities in the Balkans, Middle East, Eurasia and Latin America. It was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

In the current environment, most political violence occurs between internal communities, such as ethnic and religious groups, rather than between states. Such inter-communal conflict threatens both internal political stability and interstate relations. In this edited volume, a multidisciplinary and multinational group of scholars analyze the bases of inter-communal conflict and its domestic and international consequences.The authors focus on inter-communal conflict through the lenses of political struggles in the Middle East and Asia, which provide fertile grounds for assessing the viability of new social constructions and the continuing impact of ancestral ties. Containing theoretical, regional, and country studies, the chapters tackle such issues as: the implications of changes in the institutional rules for political competition; how explanatory narratives for conflict are selected when multiple attributions are possible; the bases of ideological conflict that have arisen within Islam; the problems of ethnic competition that remain unresolved in powersharing arrangements; the consequences for international relations when national boundaries do not circumscribe ethnic and religious communities; and the subordination of women's interests to religious conflict and its resolution. Since identities are shaped by multiple qualities, the contributions examine the role of ideologies, institutions, and politicians in shaping political cleavages, communities, and conflicts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This volume celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Ethnic and Racial Studies. It reproduces eleven classic papers published in the journal, accompanied by discussions of each paper by invited specialists, and responses from the original authors. The various discussions in this volume provide an insight into the evolution of contemporary debates and controversies in the field of ethnic and racial studies. By bringing together these papers in one volume for the first time, this book explores a number of on-going debates about race and ethnicity.

What does it mean to bring Asia into conversation with current literature on everyday multiculturalism? This book focuses on the empirical, theoretical and methodological considerations of using an everyday multiculturalism approach to explore the ordinary ways people live together in difference in the Asian region while also drawing attention to increasing trans-Asian mobilities. The chapters in this collection encompass inter-disciplinary research undertaken in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea that explores some core aspects of everyday multiculturalism as it plays out in and across Asia. These include an increase in intraregional movements and especially labour mobility, which demands regard for the experiences of migrants from Burma, China, Nepal, The Philippines and India; negotiations of cultural diversity in nations where a multi-ethnic citizenry is formally recognised through predominantly pluralist models, and/or where national belonging is highly racialized; and intercultural contestation against, in some cases, the backdrop of a newly emergent multicultural policy environment. The book challenges and reinvigorates discussions around the relative transferability of an everyday multiculturalism framework to Asia, including concepts such as super-diversity, conviviality and everyday racism, and the importance of close attention to how people navigate differences and commonalities in local and trans-local contexts.This book will be of interest to academics and researchers studying migration, multiculturalism, ethnic and racial studies, and to advanced students of Sociology, Political Science and Public Policy. It was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

What does it mean to bring Asia into conversation with current literature on everyday multiculturalism? This book focuses on the empirical, theoretical and methodological considerations of using an everyday multiculturalism approach to explore the ordinary ways people live together in difference in the Asian region while also drawing attention to increasing trans-Asian mobilities. The chapters in this collection encompass inter-disciplinary research undertaken in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea that explores some core aspects of everyday multiculturalism as it plays out in and across Asia. These include an increase in intraregional movements and especially labour mobility, which demands regard for the experiences of migrants from Burma, China, Nepal, The Philippines and India; negotiations of cultural diversity in nations where a multi-ethnic citizenry is formally recognised through predominantly pluralist models, and/or where national belonging is highly racialized; and intercultural contestation against, in some cases, the backdrop of a newly emergent multicultural policy environment. The book challenges and reinvigorates discussions around the relative transferability of an everyday multiculturalism framework to Asia, including concepts such as super-diversity, conviviality and everyday racism, and the importance of close attention to how people navigate differences and commonalities in local and trans-local contexts.This book will be of interest to academics and researchers studying migration, multiculturalism, ethnic and racial studies, and to advanced students of Sociology, Political Science and Public Policy. It was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book addresses the centrality of race and racism in consolidating the nationalisms currently prominent in Brexit Britain. Particular attention is given to the issues of refugees, borders and bordering, and the wider forms of nativist and anti- Muslim sentiments that anchor today’s increasingly populist forms of nationalist politics. It is argued that the forms of scapegoating and alarmism integral to the revival of nationalism in British politics are fundamentally tied to racialised processes. Equally however, it is argued that such a political climate is not simply discursive, but also yields acute forms of governance, wherein an increasingly violent attention is given by the state to the border. The chapters in the book do however also attempt to think through the possibilities of a constructive response to this moment. Emphasis is given here to the everyday cultural textures that might help shape a popular opposition to racial nationalism. Similarly, the book attempts to unpack the appeal of today’s distinctive populism in ways that might be more responsive to anti-racist and anti-nationalist sentiments.Racial Nationalisms will be of interest to academics and researchers studying postcolonialism, nationalism, ethnic and racial studies, and to advanced students of sociology, political science and public policy.This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book addresses the centrality of race and racism in consolidating the nationalisms currently prominent in Brexit Britain. Particular attention is given to the issues of refugees, borders and bordering, and the wider forms of nativist and anti- Muslim sentiments that anchor today’s increasingly populist forms of nationalist politics. It is argued that the forms of scapegoating and alarmism integral to the revival of nationalism in British politics are fundamentally tied to racialised processes. Equally however, it is argued that such a political climate is not simply discursive, but also yields acute forms of governance, wherein an increasingly violent attention is given by the state to the border. The chapters in the book do however also attempt to think through the possibilities of a constructive response to this moment. Emphasis is given here to the everyday cultural textures that might help shape a popular opposition to racial nationalism. Similarly, the book attempts to unpack the appeal of today’s distinctive populism in ways that might be more responsive to anti-racist and anti-nationalist sentiments.Racial Nationalisms will be of interest to academics and researchers studying postcolonialism, nationalism, ethnic and racial studies, and to advanced students of sociology, political science and public policy.This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies.

As the European Union seemingly teetered from a financial crisis to an immigration crisis around 2015 and onwards, discourses of race appeared to congeal in various member states. In some instances, these came with familiarly essentialist constructions; in others these were refracted cautiously through concerns about security, national and cultural integrity, distribution of public resources and employment, and so on. New political alignments surfaced on the back of such concerns, and established organizations changed their agendas accordingly. The border regimes of EU member states became increasingly fraught, both in terms of their everyday operations and in terms of the close attention and vociferous debates they attracted. In most instances, the internal and external borders of the EU hardened, and with increasing frequency the cohesion of the transnational union seemed on the verge of fracturing. Indeed, very real fissures opened up with secessionist moves and referendums. Through each step in this juncture of upheavals, the significance of race has been reiterated in tangential ways and sometimes with unabashed straightforwardness. This volume explores this juncture around 2015, and the constructions of race and of crisis therein, for specific contexts and from a range of disciplinary perspectives. The introduction gives an overview of the juncture, focusing on the rise of Eurosceptic nationalist political parties and their electoral success. Subsequent chapters are addressed to the management and representation of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean, border regimes in the Czech Republic, the narratives that converged on Brexit, riots in England, antagonistic popular movements in Sweden, racialization in crisis management in Italy, perceptions of migrants in Greece, and how race may be structured in and challenged through classroom pedagogy. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Migration and Race in Europe covers various facets of the interplay between migration and race in Europe. Over the past two decades there has been a growing public policy and political debate about questions linked to migration and refugee movements across the borders of Europe. This has been evident in countries such as the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany that have had long-established experience with questions about immigration and race. But what has also become clear is that these debates have also become an established part of political and civil society discourses across both Southern and Eastern European societies and beyond. The contributions to this volume draw on the latest research in order to provide an insight into the changing dynamics of migration and race in a number of European societies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

The concepts of reconciliation and transitional justice are inextricably linked in a new body of normative meta-theory underpinned by claims related to their effects in managing the transformation of deeply divided societies to a more stable and more democratic basis. This edited volume is dedicated to a critical re-examination of the key premises on which the debates in this field pivot. The contributions problematise core concepts, such as victimhood, accountability, justice and reconciliation itself; and provide a comparative perspective on the ethnic, ideological, racial and structural divisions to understand their rootedness in local contexts and to evaluate how they shape and constrain moving beyond conflict. With its systematic empirical analysis of a geographic and historic range of conflicts involving ethnic and racial groups, the volume furthers our grasp of contradictions often involved in transitional justice scholarship and practice and how they may undermine the very goals of peace, stability and reconciliation that they seek to promote.This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

How do racialized migrant mothers contest hegemonic racialized formations of citizenship? Bringing together leading scholars from international and multi-disciplinary perspectives, this book shows how migrant mothers realise and problematise their role in bringing up future citizens in modern societies, increasingly characterised by racial, ethnic, religious, cultural and social diversity. The book stimulates critical thinking on how migrant mothers creatively intervene into citizenship by reworking its racialized meanings and creating new, racially plural practices and challenging boundaries. The contributions explore the processes that shape migrant mothers’ cultural and caring work in enabling their children to occupy a place as future citizens despite and against their racialized subordination. The book contributes to disciplinary fields of politics, sociology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, participatory arts practice and theory, geography, queer and gender studies, looking at the thematic areas of participatory arts, family forms, social activism, and education in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Portugal. These cross-cultural and disciplinary perspectives contribute to the exciting emergence of a distinctive field of research engaging with pressing intellectual and social issues of how ideas and practices of citizenship develop in the face of increasing spatial mobility and across boundaries of generation and ethnicity, in the process requiring new, creative interventions into how we think about and do citizenship. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

The main objective of this edited collection is to provide an insight into key facets of contemporary research and scholarship on race and ethnicity. The various chapters were presented at a conference to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the international journal Ethnic and Racial Studies. Given this context, contributors reflect on the evolution of scholarship over the past five decades, and look forward to the range of issues that we shall need to research and understand more fully in the future. In doing so they both provide an overview of the shifting boundaries of the field of ethnic and racial studies and display an engagement with emerging fields of scholarship and research. The volume brings together leading scholars who have experience of researching race and ethnicity in various parts of the globe, and combines conceptual reflection with empirically focused analysis. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This book brings together the most recent and the most comprehensive collection of articles on a population at risk: the children of immigrants in the United States, especially those children whose parents came to the country without legal authorization. The end of compassion and the shift to temporary migration to source the labour needs of the American economy have brought in their wake a series of consequences, some of which were predictable and others unexpected. The chapters fully document the nature and implications of the enforcement initiatives implemented by the American government in recent years and their interaction with state policies and local contexts of reception. This collection provides an exhaustive testimony of the severe conditions faced by unauthorized migrant families and their children today and their repercussions in both countries of origin and those where they currently live. The End of Compassion will be of interest to researchers and academics studying migration in the United States and ethnic and racial studies, and to advanced students of sociology, public policy, law and political science. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies.

In what ways do local authorities respond to the increasing socio-cultural heterogeneity of urban populations? While other studies have often focused on policy declarations, the eight chapters in this book provide rich evidence on the content and implementation of local policies. Furthermore, several chapters offer theoretical insights into the factors driving or hindering policies that acknowledge socio-cultural heterogeneity and ensure more equality and inclusive public services. The general focus of the book is on cities in France and Germany, that is, two major immigration countries in Europe - countries in which local authorities have a relatively strong position within the state structure. The contributions analyze how local actors use their powers to ensure more equal public employment, adapt cultural offers and recreational facilities to the demands of a diverse population, and/or to fight discrimination. Further chapters investigate who takes part in formulating policies and seek to explain why cities take different decisions about strategies and practices. As a whole, the book contributes to the comparative study of societal diversity and local politics in France and Germany, and will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced students of Sociology, Public Policy, Law, and Political Science. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

In what ways do local authorities respond to the increasing socio-cultural heterogeneity of urban populations? While other studies have often focused on policy declarations, the eight chapters in this book provide rich evidence on the content and implementation of local policies. Furthermore, several chapters offer theoretical insights into the factors driving or hindering policies that acknowledge socio-cultural heterogeneity and ensure more equality and inclusive public services. The general focus of the book is on cities in France and Germany, that is, two major immigration countries in Europe - countries in which local authorities have a relatively strong position within the state structure. The contributions analyze how local actors use their powers to ensure more equal public employment, adapt cultural offers and recreational facilities to the demands of a diverse population, and/or to fight discrimination. Further chapters investigate who takes part in formulating policies and seek to explain why cities take different decisions about strategies and practices. As a whole, the book contributes to the comparative study of societal diversity and local politics in France and Germany, and will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced students of Sociology, Public Policy, Law, and Political Science. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.