After race: Ethnography, race and post-race theory

Abstract If race is an arbitrary sign used to divide up the human population, why do social constructionists continue to deploy the term at the same time as they refute its existence? If race is an empty category that holds no value what does it mean to be writing, researching and conducting ethnography in the name of race? This article considers the problematic of race enquiry in the light of an anti-foundationalist impulse evident in recent writing on cultural identity by scholars such as Bhabha, Butler, Derrida, Fanon and Gilroy. This generative cluster of philosophical ideas, theories and practices are tentatively identified here as decipherable of an emergent post-race paradigm. Though offering a critical interrogation of the dominant paradigm in race thinking – social constructionism – the article calls for an appreciation of the highly productive tensions evident in the broader genealogy of race theory and politics. In encouraging critical dialogues within and across essentialist, constructionist and post-race frameworks this essay addresses how we can do, undo, or do differently the question of race in ethnography. Keywords: Ethnographyidentitypost-race theoryracesocial constructionismwhiteness Acknowledgments I would like to thank Claire Alexander and two anonymous referees for their very thoughtful comments on this piece. I would also like to thank participants at the Writing Race: Ethnography and Difference conference, London School of Economics and Political Science, 13 March 2004 for their valuable critique and discussion of the initial ideas presented. Notes 1. This point is vividly demonstrated in Stuart Hall's (Citation1993) idea of ‘new ethnicities’, and recent ethnographic articulations of this concept (Back Citation1996; Alexander Citation1996; Ali Citation2003). 2. However, Frankenberg then goes on to argue against a dualistic view of culture in favour of more fluid and permeable understandings (pp. 230–35). My intention is not to oversimplify Frankenberg's account but, rather, to draw attention to the contradictory manner in which social constructionism may operate. 3. My own volume, which is translated from the original French edition, does not have this comma. However, the joining together of these two phrases still makes the point intelligible. Additional informationNotes on contributorsAnoop Nayak ANOOP NAYAK is Lecturer Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne