This key text explores the nature and extent of racial discrimination, and the successes and failures of equal opportunities programmes. A successful balance of important recent articles and substantial contributions specially written for the volume, it presents analyses of institutional racism in immigration law, housing, social work, employment training and the criminal justice system. The contributors explore changes over time and examine the interwoven strands of `race', class and gender that form the pattern of disadvantage.

They then discuss the formulation, implementation and outcomes of equal opportunities policies in the local state and the private sector, rigorously investigating both `liberal' and `radical' approaches. An analysis is then presented of the political and ideological contentions that influence the ways in which issues are defined and support is mobilized and highlight the shortcomings of current legislation.

Racism and Antiracism - an Open University Reader for the course `Race', Education and Society - will be essential reading for teachers, students and all those concerned with discrimination and with antiracist policy.

MAJOR NEW SERIES ON RACE

This trio of co-ordinated books draws out underlying theoretical issues around `race' and relates them to policy and practice. It analyzes the relationship between racial inequalities and other types of social division, such as those based on class and gender, and the relationship between racial inequalities in education and other areas of social life, especially employment and social welfare. It introduces debates about cultural identity and difference and discusses the formation of the dominant white culture.

Individual volumes in the series question commonsense and essentialist notions of race; provide a critical survey of existing explanations of racial differentiation; set race in a historical and social context and show how the category has been constructed through economic, political and cultural practices; highlight the role of educational policies and practices in this process; and provide a critical framework for the evaluation of existing initiatives in the areas of multiculturalism, antiracism and equal opportunties. Although Asian and Afro-Caribbean minority communities are the main point of reference, comparisons are made to the position of other ethnic minorities.