Marxism,racism and the construction of ‘race’ as a social and political relation: an interview with Professor Robert Miles

Robert Miles has made a significant contribution to the field of racism and ethnic studies. In his early work, Miles drew upon structuralist Marxist theorizations of capitalism to offer a historically informed analysis of racism and migrant labour (Miles 1982). This perspective placed political economy at the centre of the study of racism. In addition, Miles' critical discussions with other influential contemporaries such as Paul Gilroy and Stuart Hall (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) 1982) raised crucial issues concerning the construction of ‘race’ as a social and political relation in Britain (Back and Solomos 2000). However, Miles became most renowned for his critique of the ‘race relations’ paradigm and his insistence that sociologists employ the concept of ‘racialization’ rather than ‘race’ (Miles 1982, 1989, 1993). Overall, Miles' work was rich both in its theoretical clarity and historical depth, and his contributions warrant critical analysis today. The following interview was conducted in December 2009.     

Is the significance of race declining in the political arena? Yes,and no

The significance of class is increasing in the USA, in the sense that economic inequality is rising within the black and Latino populations as well as among whites. Growing inequality is associated with increasing disparities in lived experiences. Is class also increasingly significant in political life? Survey evidence shows that the answer is yes: compared with previous decades, well-off blacks and Latinos are less strongly liberal in some policy preferences and feel more politically efficacious, while poor blacks and Latinos tend to move in the opposite direction. Well-off non-whites have not, however, lost any commitment to racial justice or identity, so the USA is not becoming ‘post-racial’. Given the complex patterns of change and persistence in opinions, Wilson's arguments about when and how race is significant remain as important and controversial as when first expressed.     

Can there be a truly systematic and comprehensive theory of race?

ABSTRACT

In this ambitious new book, Mustafa Emirbayer and Matthew Desmond contend that there has never been a truly comprehensive and systematic theory of race. They go on to argue that ‘Much of our best work no longer tells us how to understand or reconstruct racial dynamics but simply gives us concrete proof of their continuing significance’ (3). To what extent does The Racial Order theoretically advance existing theorizing of race? An important contribution – and a central plank in the book – is the way in which a wide variety of cultural and social phenomena is discussed and interwoven into the analysis. The authors draw most heavily on Bourdieu, Dewey, and Durkheim, in their elaboration of the racial order.     

Disciplinary Anthropology? Amateur Ethnography and the Production of ‘Heritage’ in Rural France

‘Amateur’ anthropology and ethnography are utopian categories proposed by anthropologists seeking to critique a perceived culture of ‘professionalism’ within the discipline (Grimshaw &; Hart, 1993 Grimshaw, Anna and Hart, Keith. 1993. Anthropology and the Crisis of the Intellectuals, Cambridge: Prickly Pear Pamphlet No.1.  [Google Scholar]). Yet they have arguably been practised extensively by local intellectuals oblivious to such debates. In rural Europe, this has often involved ‘pastoral’ conservation of ‘local history’, ‘traditions’ and ‘folk customs’, in the context of identity politics. Recent manifestations, however, have enabled the disciplining of cultural practices of indigenous populations by local entrepreneurs for use in heritage tourism. Building on Foucault's concept of a ‘disciplinary programme’, this paper analyses projects from a French Mediterranean village that have ‘borrowed’ discursive forms from French ethnology and historiography to convert local heritages into disciplined archives and booklets, predominantly for use in tourism. It then analyses their approximation to the discipline of anthropology; assesses their problematic distinction from anthropology's own disciplinary programmes; and explores the implications.     

How does parental role influence the activity and movements of breeding wolves?

We studied the activity and movements of a male and a female wolf during breeding in the Bieszczady Mountains, Poland. The female was less active and mobile and on average closer to the den than the male. The male was less active and mobile when the pack size was seven compared to a year when the pack consisted only of the breeding pair. We conclude that the roles played by breeding males and females rearing pups influence their activity, and that breeding males in larger packs move less during the nursing period because of help by other pack members.     

Global change,biodiversity, and ecosystem services: What can we learn from studies of pollination?

The study of global environmental change and its effect on biodiversity and ecosystem function is at an exciting crossroads, at which ideas developed largely through theory and small-scale experiments are now being tested with ecosystem services as they are delivered to people in real-world landscapes. Pollinators and pollination are emerging as a model system for exploring these questions, which inherently required working large spatio-temporal scales. In this Invited View, I discuss current questions that are at the leading edge of this research. I first point out some surprising knowledge gaps in our understanding of pollinators’ response to global change. I then outline several ways in which current understanding of the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship might be transformed by studies conducted at large spatio-temporal scales. Specifically, I propose two hypotheses that relate to the number of species required to saturate ecosystem function, and to the mechanisms through which biodiversity stabilizes ecosystem function over space or time.     

Global warming and Bergmann’s rule: do central European passerines adjust their body size to rising temperatures?

Recent climate change has caused diverse ecological responses in plants and animals. However, relatively little is known about homeothermic animals’ ability to adapt to changing temperature regimes through changes in body size, in accordance with Bergmann’s rule. We used fluctuations in mean annual temperatures in south-west Germany since 1972 in order to look for direct links between temperature and two aspects of body size: body mass and flight feather length. Data from regionally born juveniles of 12 passerine bird species were analysed. Body mass and feather length varied significantly among years in eight and nine species, respectively. Typically the inter-annual changes in morphology were complexly non-linear, as was inter-annual variation in temperature. For six (body mass) and seven species (feather length), these inter-annual fluctuations were significantly correlated with temperature fluctuations. However, negative correlations consistent with Bergmann’s rule were only found for five species, either for body mass or feather length. In several of the species for which body mass and feather length was significantly associated with temperature, morphological responses were better predicted by temperature data that were smoothed across multiple years than by the actual mean breeding season temperatures of the year of birth. This was found in five species for body mass and three species for feather length. These results suggest that changes in body size may not merely be the result of phenotypic plasticity but may hint at genetically based microevolutionary adaptations.     

Gypsies,Celts and tinkers: Colonial antecedents of anti‐traveller racism in Ireland

Post‐colonial nationalist ideologies and practices construct an Irish Republic free of ‘ethnicity’ and ‘racism’. The ethnicization of the Irish Travelling People ('itinerants’, ‘tinkers') and the existence of anti‐traveller racism, however, reveal the limitations of this construction. This article focuses upon the antecedents of anti‐traveller ideologies by concentrating on the period that preceded Irish independence in 1922. The history of Irish itinerancy from the middle ages to the mid‐nineteenth century is first described and located within the context of British colonialism. This is followed by a consideration of scholarly, literary and popular representations of ‘tinkers’ during the late nineteenth century. Three interelated discourses, those of the British Gypsylorists, the Anglo‐Irish Celtic Literary Revivalists, and the folklore of the Irish peasantry, are described and linked to British imperialism, Irish cultural nationalism, and agrarian class relations respectively. It is argued that an analysis of these discourses, grounded in political economy, provides a useful historical context for analyses of more recent constructions of Travellers that have arisen in the course of struggles over a state settlement programme initiated in the 1960s. Through documentation and analysis of historical constructions of Travelling People, especially constructions of their origins, this article aims to challenge contemporary essentialist constructions of both ethnic identity and racism by redirecting attention instead towards the economic and political processes and relations of power that produce difference and inequality within the Irish context. Such analysis can also raise broader issues regarding the existence and specificity of racism in the Irish Republic.     

Is there chaos in the brain? I. Concepts of nonlinear dynamics and methods of investigation

In the light of results obtained during the last two decades in a number of laboratories, it appears that some of the tools of nonlinear dynamics, first developed and improved for the physical sciences and engineering, are well-suited for studies of biological phenomena. In particular it has become clear that the different regimes of activities undergone by nerve cells, neural assemblies and behavioural patterns, the linkage between them, and their modifications over time, cannot be fully understood in the context of even integrative physiology, without using these new techniques. This report, which is the first of two related papers, is aimed at introducing the non expert to the fundamental aspects of nonlinear dynamics, the most spectacular aspect of which is chaos theory. After a general history and definition of chaos the principles of analysis of time series in phase space and the general properties of chaotic trajectories will be described as will be the classical measures which allow a process to be classified as chaotic in ideal systems and models. We will then proceed to show how these methods need to be adapted for handling experimental time series; the dangers and pitfalls faced when dealing with non stationary and often noisy data will be stressed, and specific criteria for suspecting determinism in neuronal cells and/or assemblies will be described. We will finally address two fundamental questions, namely i) whether and how can one distinguish, deterministic patterns from stochastic ones, and, ii) what is the advantage of chaos over randomness: we will explain why and how the former can be controlled whereas, notoriously, the latter cannot be tamed. In the second paper of the series, results obtained at the level of single cells and their membrane conductances in real neuronal networks and in the study of higher brain functions, will be critically reviewed. It will be shown that the tools of nonlinear dynamics can be irreplaceable for revealing hidden mechanisms subserving, for example, neuronal synchronization and periodic oscillations. The benefits for the brain of adopting chaotic regimes with their wide range of potential behaviours and their aptitude to quickly react to changing conditions will also be considered.     

The influence of snow on lynx and coyote movements: does morphology affect behavior?

Summary We studied sympatric lynx (Lynx canadensis) and coyotes (Canis latrans) to assess how morphological disadvantages to locomotion over snow affected movement patterns. Both species are of similar size and mass, but the feet of lynx are much larger, and coyotes were found to have 4.1–8.8 times the foot-load (ratio of body mass to foot area) of lynx. This resulted in greater mean sinking depths of coyote limbs, although the magnitude of the difference was less than that in foot-load. Coyotes exhibited stronger use of behavioral patterns that reduced negative effects of snow on movements. Coyotes were most abundant at low elevations where snow was shallow, whereas lynx were mostly at higher elevations. Coyotes also used areas at both elevations where snow was shallower than average, while lynx used areas where snow was deeper. further, both species used travel routes where snow was shallower than it was near the track. Coyotes traveled on harder snow and used trails more frequently, thereby tending to reduce sinking depths to those similar to lynx. The behavioral repertoire of coyotes reduced the morphological advantage of large feet possessed by lynx; however, overall sinking depths were still greater in coyotes. Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) were the main prey of both species, and their foot-load was less than that of either predator. Hare kills by coyotes occurred after fewer bounds than did those by lynx, and the large difference between foot-loads of both species of predators may have forced coyotes to ambush rather than chase hares, as did lynx.