Realism and Racism - Concepts of Race in Sociological Research (Hardcover)

This book suggests that concepts of race have all but lost their relevance as sociologically significant descriptions. This book surveys ways in which social scientists have attempted to come to terms with this situation, before developing an alternative approach based on recent work by realist authors. This approach offers a radical revision of orthodox debates about race concepts, about the possibility of a social science and about the nature of empirical research. This is illustrated through two policy examples: an account of post war migration to the UK, and debates about trans-racial adoption in the UK and the USA.