RIM Blog

The Independent Social Research Foundation Bulletin 23: Race and Markets

July 1, 2021 | by Francesca Sobande

Cover art by Chris Manson (www.chrislaumanson.co.uk)

Cover art by Chris Manson (www.chrislaumanson.co.uk)

The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) Bulletin 23: Race and Markets was published online on 24 May 2021 and brings together a wide range of international work that critically addresses questions related to race, the marketplace, and visual culture.

The Bulletin is based on the written and visual contributions of RIM members and was co-edited by Francesca Sobande, Alice Schoonejans, Guillaume D. Johnson, Kevin D. Thomas, Anthony Kwame Harrison, and Sonya A. Grier. This recent ISRF Bulletin was created to particularly showcase dynamic work that stemmed from the ISRF-funded "Photo-dialogue workshop" which took place immediately before the RIM Research Forum in Paris, France, in June 2019. In the words of the co-editors in their "Introduction" to the Bulletin:

Crossing Visionary Boundaries: A Transdisciplinary Photovoice Project of Race and Markets was developed to specifically explore how manifestations of race and racism impact, and have been impacted by, market relations in the context of Paris, France, where the dominant Republican Model constrains discussions on race and racism. Combining critical race theory and photo-elicitation methodology, the project involved us assembling a cross-national and cross-disciplinary team of scholars interested in race-based marketplace issues and local community stakeholders (community activists, artists, practitioners, policy actors) to discuss, compare, and contrast their views on “race and markets” as part of a two-day workshop.

As we discuss in a co-authored article on “Enacting anti-racist visualities through photo-dialogues on race in Paris”, this project involved us exploring the potentials of photography to enact and reinforce antiracist archetypes. As such, “we advance the photo-dialogue method: a collaborative and dialogic photographic process that is reflexive, pluralized and facilitates the analysis of quotidian yet insightful everyday moments… Overall, we explore how photo-dialogues, paired with critical reflection on who and what constitutes the photographic gaze, can contribute to anti-racist research, pedagogy and praxis, by documenting and facilitating discussions of mobility, gentrification, White supremacy and the daily lives of racialized people.”

The co-editors would like to thank the Independent Social Research Foundation for their support, including Lars Cornelissen who wrote the Bulletin editorial opening.