ECHOES



PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST

Ethnicity - Racism, Class and Culture - By Steve Fenton

The phrase "ethnic group" is now part of daily news and political discourse. More ominously, the term "ethnic cleansing" has entered the language in the aftermath of the collapse of Yugoslavia. Despite phrases such as this, we often think of ethnic difference as benign - whether exemplified in food, dress or music. But is it? Are the kinds of sentiment that we call ethnic - or national - as potentially destructive as those we call racist? Are marches and drumbeats heart-warming traditional rituals or the signs of bitter division?

Many books on ethnicity and racism have concentrated on a single country; this book takes the reader through key analytical debates drawing on a range of case study material from around the globe, including: Britain and migration; America as a post-slavery society; Hawai’i as a land dispossession society; and Malaysia as a "plural" post-colonial society.

In doing so, it addresses the question of whether there is a universal resurgence of ethnicity and coolly assesses competing theories of ethnicity and racism. Providing the reader with a clear conceptual frame within which to see longstanding debates afresh, it will be of relevance and value to both students of a range of social sciences and specialists in the field. Published by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD, © Steve Fenton 1999, ISBN 0-333-66225-3 Pb.

Ethnic and Racial Studies Today - Edited by Martin Bulmer and John Solomos

The teaching of race and ethnicity is now an important part of the core curriculum in a wide variety of social sciences and humanities subjects. In this important collection contributors to the leading international journal Ethnic and Racial Studies, together with colleagues from other disciplines, reflect on the ways in which race and ethnicity are being studied today. Drawing on the latest research, the authors provide a comprehensive account of key controversies and debates in many areas, including sociology, politics, social geography, cultural studies and philosophy, and pinpoint new directions in research and scholarship that are likely to shape the study, teaching and presentation of race and ethnicity well into the next century.
Published by Routledge © 1999 - ISBN 0-415-18173-9

Out of the Shadows - The First African Indigenous Women’s Conference Edited by Angeline van Achterberg

From 20 to 24 April 1998, the First African Indigenous Women’s Conference was held in Agadir, Morocco. It was the first time that women of Indigenous Peoples from South, East, North and West Africa had come together to share their knowledge, experiences, and strengths. The conference was initiated by the Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples (NCIV) and the Moroccan association Tamaynut. It was the end result of a two-year process of consultations among African Indigenous organisations through visits, meetings, and letters. These consultations allowed us to define two subjects as core issues: These subjects are:

  • The role of African Indigenous women as treasurers of the cultural and intellectual heritage of their people and,
  • Violence against African Indigenous women.

    Two minor subjects were also discussed:

  • The legal situation of African Indigenous women in the countries they inhabit, and,
  • Biodiverstiy and traditional medicine and African Indigenous women.

    Published by The Netherlands Centre for Indigenous Peoples and International Books © 1998 - ISBN 90 5727 0269 in English and French.
    Tel: +31-30-2731 840, Fax: +31-30-2733 614
    Email: i-books@antenna.nl

    New Ethnicities and Urban Culture
    Racisms and Multiculture in Young Lives
    - by Les Bac

    How do young people express their sense of social identity in multicultural urban environments? How does racism enter into their lives, and to what extent are new forms of cultural dialogue being established? New Ethnicities and Urban Culture aims to answer these and other questions through an engaging and detailed examination of the lives and cultures of young people.

    Drawing on extensive ethnographic research the author shows how new identities are emerging within hybrid forms of musical and cultural expression, and how these developments are being met by multiple forms of popular racism. The city provides a site for the most profound forms of trans-cultural communication, yet it also plays host to complex and elaborated forms of racial exclusion. New Ethnicities and Urban Culture examines the social basis of this metropolitan paradox.

    As a grounded empirical analysis of the everyday lives of young people and as a fresh, challenging theorisation of the relationship between race, culture and identity, this study will be essential reading for undergraduate and post-graduate courses in race and ethnicity, cultural studies, urban sociology and social anthropology.

    Published by University College London Press, © Les Back, 1996 - ISBN 1-85728-252-3 Pb

    Race and Class
    A journal for black and third world liberation

    Published quarterly by the Institute of Race Relations, Race & Class is the foremost English-language journal on racism and imperialism in the world today. For more than two decades, it has established a reputation for the breadth of its analysis, its global outlook and its multi-disciplinary approach - with contributions from scientists, artists, novelists, journalists, politicians and Black and Third-World activists and scholars. Race & Class covers:

  • Globalisation
  • The "new world order"
  • Refugees
  • Indigenous peoples
  • Debt
  • Popular culture
  • Culture and identity
  • Black politics, and much more.

    As from January 2000 Race & Class is being published by Sage Publications for the Institute of Race Relations. A full list of available back issues with their contents is available online at www.homebeats.co.uk.

    Debt and the Jubilee: Pacing the Economy
    Dette et Jubilé: Imprimer un rhythme à l’économie

    edited by Jean-Michel Bonvin

    The closest definition of the Jubilee year is given in Chapter 25 of Leviticus: "Ye shall... proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof... Ye shall return every man unto his possession... A Jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed" (Lev. 25,10-11).

    The Jubilee thus introduces a salutary break into economic logic and creates room for a different rhythm which takes fuller account of man’s manifold dimensions. In a society which is obsessed with the notion of profitability, the Jubilee represents the time of man and the time of God. In this sense, it throws down a challenge which our age, like every other age, must take up. The Jubilee is essentially pragmatic in nature; it does not seek to deny reality, especially economic reality, but endeavours to bring it more into line with God’s own plan. This gives it a force of inspiration with which it can mobilise followers of every religious tradition and every current of thinking that aims to promote social justice.

    The Jerusalem symposium on "The Jubilee and its Economic and Social Implications" was organised in this spirit and gave rise to fruitful exchanges of views between philosophers, sociologists, theologians, historians and economists from both Jewish and Christian backgrounds. This book contains a summary of the symposium papers and was published in English and French.

    168 pages, ISBN 2-9700232-0-2, January 2000, US$ 25 or CHF 40.-
    Please order copies from:
    Observatoire de la Finance, 32 rue de l'Athénée, CH-1206 Geneva, Fax: +41-(0)22-789 1460, Email: office@obsfin.ch. Website: http://www.obsfin.ch


  • WORKSHOPS

    Responding to Conflict (RTC)
    Strengthening Policy and Practice

    Practical Strategies for Agencies Working in Areas of Tension and Conflict. Workshop: 17-21 July 2000, Birmingham, UK.

    A residential workshop for staff of international agencies with advisory or direct management responsibility for relief, development, rights and peace-building programmes. It is especially relevant for those engaged in the planning and implementation of programmes of humanitarian assistance, and for those concerned with developing policies for appropriate responses in complex political emergencies. This course has proved very popular, and was heavily oversubscribed in July 1999.

    Objectives
    Participants will:

  • learn and practise a range of methods for understanding and analysing conflict
  • learn about and critically appraise various approaches to evaluating the effect of programmes on conflict, including "Do No Harm"
  • develop tools for assessing the positive and negative impacts of development and relief programmes on conflict
  • use the above knowledge to reassess the impact of their programmes in areas affected by actual and potential conflict, and to identify fresh needs and possibilities
  • learn about a wide range of methods for intervening in conflict, including negotiation and mediation, and explore how programme policies can support these as necessary
  • explore ways in which their agency can integrate effective conflict prevention and peace-building into programme planning.

    Responding to Conflict (RTC)
    RTC is an international not-for-profit agency which provides practical capacity-building programmes to support people working for peace, rights and sustainable development in conflict-affected areas of the world. As part of its work to promote skills and strategies for peace RTC organises this course annually. Since the course started three years ago, participants have come from many agencies, including DfID, Oxfam, Quaker Peace and Service, International Alert, the European Centre for Conflict Resolution, the International Police Task Force at Sarajevo, the Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association, the British Red Cross, Heritiers de la Justice, and the Progama de Promoçao da Paz; and from many countries including Sri Lanka, Sudan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, The Netherlands and Northern Ireland.

    Location
    The workshop will take place at Woodbrooke, a Quaker Studies Centre in Birmingham, UK.

    Fees
    The fee for the workshop, inclusive of accommodation and food, is £650. Where participants are staying elsewhere and do not need bed and breakfast, the rate is £550.

    Places
    Numbers will be limited to 26 in order to maximise participation and the overall quality of the course. To guarantee a place please contact RTC for an application form as soon as possible.

    For more information please contact:
    Responding to Conflict
    1046 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 6LJ, UK.
    Tel: +44(0)121 415 5641 Fax: +44 121 415 4119
    Email: enquiries@respond.org.
    Website: http://www.respond.org
    Registered charity no.1015906



  • Table of Contents // Editorial // Environmental racism: old wine in a new bottle by Deborah M. Robinson // Racial Violence, by Mukami McCrum // Interview with M. Deenabandhu On the subject of casteism // Redefining understandings of racism, by N. Barney Pityana // Theological deconstruction and reconstruction in the fight against racism by Maria-Cristina Ventura // Ethnicity and racism by Steve Fenton // Inter-racial church Communities, by Rev. Marjorie Lewis-Cooper // Rio de Janeiro Declaration // The WCC Special Fund to Combat Racism // Two groups who received a Special Fund grant // The UN World Conference against Racism and the WCC Ecumenical Study Process on Racism // SISTERS in the struggle to Eliminate Racism and Sexism by Sammy Toineeta, Betty Ruth Lozana Lerma, Silvia Regina // Publications

    © 2000 world council of churches | remarks to webeditor