Scholarly Debates and Their Societal Backdrops

• Published in: Social science history 2019-07, Vol.43 (2), p.387-392
• Main Author: Morning, Ann
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropology; Biologists; Biology; Biomedicine; Constructivism; Debates; Essays; Ethnicity; Genealogy; Jurisdiction; Nationalism; Physical characteristics; Race; Race relations; Scientists; Sociology; Symposium; Teaching
• ISSN: 0145-5532; 1527-8034
• DOI: 10.1017/ssh.2019.10

Grounds for Difference is truly a jewel of a book. Through a series of essays, it casts light on major facets of the domains of ethnicity and nationalism. Nowhere is this more evident than in the chapter entitled “The Return of Biology,” which will be the focus of this essay. “The Return of Biology” has a great deal to offer multiple and overlapping audiences. Readers who want to explore how claims linking race to biology have been produced or taken up in sociology in the last decade will be hard-pressed to find a comparable text covering so much ground in such concise fashion. Similarly, the chapter is a terrific teaching resource because it provides a brief yet comprehensive overview of key domains where notions of race and biology are being hashed out today: biomedicine, forensics, genealogy, and the politics of belonging. In my view, however, the chapter’s greatest contribution is its ending manifesto: the list of recommendations that Brubaker makes for “a constructivist response” to what he perceives as the return or rise of objectivist notions of race as biology. Every student of sociology should become familiar with it. Having said that, there are aspects of both his description of scholarly debate about race and his recommendations for a response to which I would like to add.