This book analyses and bridges the gap between critical social research on race and politics by reviewing the academic field of race theorising and scholarship, covering changes in race and racism debates in recent decades, and assessing the extent, scope, and limits of academic engagements with, and impact on, policy and politics. This approach will take the reader through and beyond impact debates, public sociology and scholarship, racism, diversity, and post-race. The landscape around the politics of race and policing has changed dramatically. There is a greater extent and depth of research ... More

This book analyses and bridges the gap between critical social research on race and politics by reviewing the academic field of race theorising and scholarship, covering changes in race and racism debates in recent decades, and assessing the extent, scope, and limits of academic engagements with, and impact on, policy and politics. This approach will take the reader through and beyond impact debates, public sociology and scholarship, racism, diversity, and post-race. The landscape around the politics of race and policing has changed dramatically. There is a greater extent and depth of research on race, policing, and policy than 30–40 years ago; the same also applies to public and media discussions of racism. Yet, the same matters recur: complaints of unfair and discriminatory over-policing of black people, of racism and inequality in public policy, and the unresolved legacy of cases from the 1990s. This book argues that the ongoing and unresolved challenges around race and racism are troubling in academic discourse as well as in public policy and debate and, moreover, that the discussion of these is linked together.