| 4DRace and Inequality in 19th century Europe:
human bodies and human history |
| MOORE, Robert (Dept. of Sociology, University of LiverpoolAUK, rsmoore@liverpool.ac.uk) |
| Irrespective of developments in scientific thought,
many of today's commonly held assumptions about 'race' may be traced back
to versions of 'scientific racism', ideas developed in the 19th century which
have become part of European culture. Malik suggests that the idea of 'race' as a basis for inequality came late in European history, it was needed (in part) to enable people with universalistic beliefs to account for the persistent inequalities that they observed. Inequalities of class also had to be explained and ideas of 'breeding' and, later, eugenics were very important in discussions of the progress and alleged decline of European societies themselves. Furthermore the idea of 'race' and 'nation' were often elided. In the United Kingdom Irish and Scots were contrasted as 'races' and highland and lowland Scots as different 'breeds'. But the meaning of race is always socially constructed and renegotiated to serve changing ideal and material interests in different periods. In the post Second World War period 'scientific racism' was entirely discredited. But it became possible to discuss genetic differences between peoples in debates about IQ rather than comparative anatomy. In contemporary Europe biological ideas of race have been largely replaced with cultural. The 'clash of 'civilisations' has replaced ideas of European superiority based on biological 'race'. Culture has replaced nature and cultural difference have becomes part of the rhetoric of, for example, immigration control. Nevertheless traditional ideas of biological difference probably remain deeply rooted in popular racism. |
| MOORE, Robert Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool He was Professor of Sociology in Aberdeen University and, until his retirement in 2001, the Eleanor Rathbone Professor of Sociology in the University of Liverpool. He have written mainly on race and immigration, but also on urban sociology, the eunderclassf debate and the sociology of religion.@His current residence is in Holywell, North Wales where he is conducting research in an extremely deprived housing estate. Books on race relations, immigration and equality: Race, Community and Conflict (with John Rex, OUP, 1967): Slamming the Door: the Administration of Immigration Control (with Tina Wallace, Martin Robertson, 1975); Racism and Black Resistance in Britain (Pluto Press, 1975): Women in the North Sea Oil Industry (with Peter Wybrow, EOC, 1984): The Black Population of Inner Liverpool in the 1991 Census (Runnymede Trust, 1995): Positive Action in Action: Equal Opportunities and Declining Opportunities on Merseyside, Ashgate (Danish Centre for Migration and Ethnic Studies, 1997). |