Norma Romm 
New Racism 
Revisiting Researcher Accountabilities

This book develops a debate around responsible social inquiry into new racism. A variety of ways of researching new forms of racism (for example, aversive, modern, cultural, purportedly color-blind, and new racism) are addressed. Experiments that have been undertaken to inquire into group identity and people’s implicit bias in relation to those perceived as ‘other’ are critically explored and their potential consequences reconsidered. The book also critically explores survey research, which, it is argued, can serve to reinforce the notion of the existence of ethnoracial groups with defined boundaries that inhere in social life. The book considers interviewing (including focus group interviewing) and case study research (including participant observation/ethnography) in terms of possibilities for moving beyond new forms of racism. Action research (defined by the understanding of an inextricable link between knowing and acting) is examined in-depth in terms of the hopes to ‘make a difference’ at the moment of inquiry. Types of retroductive logic that are used to examine underlying structures that arguably unduly constrain people’s life chances and render human relationships inhumane are also explored. The book draws together the different arguments; and it proposes ways in which the design of research into new racism can better approached as well as ways in which dialogue around processes of inquiry and the products thereof can be better fostered. Suggestions for nurturing humane social relationships that provide for transcultural meaning-making are threaded through the text.

Table of Content

General Introduction.- Conceptualizing New Racism in Relation to Old-Fashioned Racism: Concepts and Research Approaches.- Experimental Research: Studying Variables to Examine Causal Effects in Terms of Mitigating Against the Potential of Racism.- Survey Research: Examining Expressed Feelings and Views on Racial(ized) Issues as Variables Along with Other Variables.- Intensive Interviewing as Research: Generating In-Depth Talk to Explore Experiences/Cognitions of Racism.- Ethnographic Research: Exploring the Quality of Social Life in Social Settings.- Action Research: Exploring in Action the Meaning of Research as Change in Complex Living Systems.- Research Conducted in Terms of Retroductive Processes: Rethinking the Theorization of Racism.- General Conclusion: Reviewing Research Approaches, Conceptualizing Mixed-Research Designs, and Writing into One Another’s Stories.