The SOVA Center presented the book "Racism: Modern Western Approaches"

On September 29, 2010, the Independent Press Center hosted a presentation of the collection "Racism: Modern Western Approaches" , published by the SOVA Center.

The publication contains articles on the subject of racism and discrimination in general. The first part presents an academic discussion about the conceptual foundations of these concepts, about the place of the latter in the modern world. The second part of the collection is devoted to some practical applications, from instructions for officials to the relationship between freedom of speech and the restriction of xenophobia. The texts of most of the authors presented in the collection have never been translated into Russian before the current publication.

The book is addressed to scientists and social activists who are open to modern discussions on such multifaceted and constantly changing social phenomena as racism and discrimination. These discussions, raging in Western society, are just beginning in Russia.

director of the SOVA Information and Analytical Center, Presenting the new publication, Alexander Verkhovsky, emphasized that this publication is designed to improve the quality of public discussion on the problem of racism in our country.

Dmitry Dubrovsky , researcher at the Russian Museum of Ethnography, lecturer at St. Petersburg State University, in his speech, drew attention to the relationship between the problems of academic freedom of a researcher and countering racism as such. He urged representatives of public organizations not to involve the state in the regulation of scientific discussion (an example of which was the latest scandal around the Moscow State University textbook on the history of Russia).

The fact that the new book of the SOVA Center was prepared jointly by representatives of the academic community and representatives of civil society, according to D. Dubrovsky, is an important milestone in overcoming barriers and misunderstanding between the two communities, opening up opportunities for new approaches to studying the problems of racism.

Chief Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Viktor Shnirelman, drew the attention of the audience to the ambiguity and complexity of racism as a phenomenon. In the world as a whole, there has been a transition from the concept of biological racism to the concept of cultural racism. This transition is not noticed and not realized in Russia.

The collection published by the SOVA Center is designed to overcome this gap and represents some of the most authoritative opinions of foreign researchers, published for the first time in Russian.

Sources

• On modern racism // Radio of Russia. 2010. October 4th.