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.

Karim Murji is a Professor based in the Graduate School at the University of West London and was previously at the Open University, UK. He has written widely on culture, ethnicity and racism as applied to fields such as race equality, policing, public sociology, and diaspora and identity. Since 2013 he has been part of the editorial team of Sociology, and, with Sarah Neal, he is the Editor of Current Sociology.