Racial Profiling and Borders : International, Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Racial profiling and border security have become characteristic features of governance in Western liberal democracies during the twenty-first century. This new collection provides an important multi-national perspective on an issue of great and growing concern, particularly but not exclusively in the context of corporate globalization and neo-liberal governance. Despite the growing significance of regimes of racial profiling, surveillance and tightened border controls in the post-9/11 period, there have been very few extended analyses of racial profiling in different eras and contexts, particularly at borders. The work examines the issue from a transborder perspective, with comparisons, connections and intersections of policy and practice. Chapters examine a range of topics including racial profiling and implications for inter/national and human security, racial profiling along borders in the US and the construction of "terrorists" and "illegal aliens," racial profiling and problems of proof and movements opposing racial profiling, among others. Overall, the chapters in this collection reframe racial profiling as a human rights rather than civil rights issue, making an important contribution to analyses of this important topic.About the editor: Jeff Shantz teaches critical theory, elite deviance, community and human rights in the Department of Criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Metro Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of the book Living Anarchy: Theory and Practice in Anarchist Movements. His writings have appeared in leading international journals including Critical Sociology, Critique of Anthropology, Feminist Review and New Politics as well as numerous anthologies. A longtime community organizer, he has been a member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and host of the weekly "Anti-Poverty Report" on radio stations CHRY and CKLN in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Shantz received his Ph.D. from York University in Toronto.