Imagining the west, perceiving race : social sciences and political imagination

Despite the taboo surrounding race in Europe, racism continues to define its sociality. The postwar drive to expunge race has not overcome the effects of race thinking which structure conceptions of Europeanness and nonEuropeanness. The inability to see race allows European states to declare themselves non-racist, or even anti-racist, while continuing to imply an inherent European superiority which determines both international relationships and those seen as 'in but not of Europe' within its domestic spheres. I conclude by asking what the repercussions of this envisioning of a Europe always less homogeneous in reality than it is commonly imagined to be.