Realism and Racism: Concepts of Race in Sociological Research

How do social scientists conceptualize race?

Can realism add to our understanding of race concepts and categories?

Is there a realist approach to researching racism and discrimination?

There are continuing difficulties within social science surrounding concepts of race. This book suggests that these difficulties stem from the uncertain ontological and epistemological status of ideas about race, itself a consequence of the recognition 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 postwar migration to the UK, and debates about transracial adoption in the UK and the USA.