Between Camps. Nations, Culture and the Allure of Race

In herdruk!
Begint met de vaststelling dat ondanks een wetgeving die verschil in behandeling van de diverse ethnische groepen verbiedt, er nog altijd geen sprake is van een gelijkwaardige samenleving. Sterker, extreem-rechtse idee?n krijgen langzaam aan weer meer ruimte in Europa, en stereotypen van groepen mensen zijn alom aanwezig. Volgens de auteur moeten we af van het hokjes-denken, zowel in nationaal, raciaal als cultureel opzicht, te beginnen bij het onder ogen zien van de bloedige geschiedenis van het kolonialisme, slavernij, fascisme en genocide, en voortgaand met hoe een gezamelijke toekomst te bewerkstelligen die voorbijgaat aan huidskleur of geslacht, maar ??n die uitgaat van mondiaal humanisme. Gilroy maakt gebruik van zeer uit??nlopende bronnen, zoals Primo Levi, Leni Riefenstahl, Immanuel Kant, Bob Marley, Snoop Doggy Dog en anderen.
Why do we still divide humanity into different identity groups based on skin colour? Why did all the good done by the Civil Rights Movement and the decolonization of the Third World have such little lasting effect?
In this provocative book, now reissued with a new introduction, Paul Gilroy contends that race-thinking has distorted the finest promises of modern democracy. He compels us to see that fascism was the principal political innovation of the twentieth century - and that its power to seduce did not die in a bunker in Berlin. Aren't we in fact using the same devices the Nazis used in their movies and advertisements when we make spectacles of our identities and differences?
Gilroy examines the ways in which media and commodity culture have become pre-eminent in our lives
in the years since the 1960s and especially in the 1980s with the rise of hip-hop and other militancies. With this trend, he contends, much that was valuable about black culture has been sacrificed in the service of corporate interests and new forms of cultural expression tied to visual technologies. He argues that the triumph of the image spells death to politics and reduces people to mere symbols.
At its heart, Between Camps is a utopian project calling for the renunciation of race. Gilroy champions a new humanism, global and cosmopolitan, and offers a new political language and moral vision for what was once called 'anti-racism'.
Paul Gilroy is the holder of the Anthony Giddens Fellowship at the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, and is well-known for his critical explorations into the legacy of colonialism, the rich promises of culturally and ethnically diverse societies and the ideal of "cosmopolitanism from below". Being the first holder of the Treaty of Utrecht Chair and with his outstanding resum? in the field of cultural analysis, postcolonial studies, social and critical theory, Prof. Gilroy will explore social sustainability and cultural diversity in an innovative manner that will further our understanding of the shifting boundaries of self and other in globalised Europe.

This fall Professor Gilroy's work will be the focus of a series of activities presenting a range of reflections on cosmopolitanism, diversity, and post-colonial Europe. A variety of events, conferences and lectures will be hosted by CfH. The first of these is the September public lecture and master class outlined below. More information about the future events will be available on the website of the Centre.