Preface

The process of developing and seeing an edited collection such as this one through to publication is inevitably longer than planned and sometimes tortuous. We started talking about the project initially when we felt that there was a need for more sustained discussion of the changing research agendas on race and ethnic relations that have emerged over the past two decades or so. As active participants in some of the debates, we had some understanding of key facets of these new agendas, but we saw a need for a collection of original chapters that explored key issues in more depth. It is with this overarching concern in mind that we started the process of bringing together the various contributions that make up this collection. As we talked, we felt that there were certain key areas of debate that have emerged over the past 20 years or more that we wanted to represent in this collection, and we have grouped these chapters in Part I. We also wanted to include a wide range of chapters that reflected developments within specific fields of scholarship; these are grouped together in Part II. We recognise that some themes and issues cannot be covered within the confines of a collection such as this one. This is partly why we have decided to include two substantive chapters by ourselves, as editors, which work both to provide the background to the issues that are covered in the book and to take a look forward at likely trends and developments in the future. We hope that the 15 chapters that make up this collection can help to encourage further debate and reflection at a time when questions about race and racism seem likely to continue to influence both political discourses and actions in civil society.