One rather peculiar feature of our field is the extent to which we find ourselves having to go over very old arguments again and again. Ideas that were dead and should have been buried years ago keep on popping up – less often in academic circles but certainly in popular discourse (more in the pub than the common room). I suppose the most common thread is that of ‘race and intelligence’ with people even reaching back to draw on ‘scientific racism’ for ideas about brain size and so on. I suspect similar themes emerge when gender is discussed (by men). Then there is all the ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’ stuff. Of course, what is not discussed, does not appear in popular discourse or the Daily Mail, may be even more important.
But I wonder if any colleagues are working on aspects of the persistence of these zombie theories (undead ideas) in popular discourses around equality, race, gender etc. I’m a bit out of the loop at present, so: are there any recent books or articles on the extent to which racist theories are still embedded in the taken for granted?
The fact that these ideas can still be implicit in popular discussions of social policy, immigration issues (even Brexit) seem to me to underline one important aspect of the need to decolonialise the curriculum. But, at the moment, I’m just looking for current work on these ideas.

Robert


Professor Robert Moore
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Eleanor Rathbone Building
The University of Liverpool
L69 7ZA

Telephone and fax: 44 (0) 1352 714456

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