Issues of identity, culture and difference remain central to the politics, policies and encounters of global societies in the 21st century. Changes in the speed, scale, scope and form of international and internal migration, new and resurgent religious and ethnic solidarities, the emergence of ‘new’ multicultural societies, and the fusions and fissures of ‘old’ multicultural societies, have challenged and redrawn our understandings of nation and community, citizenship and belonging, exclusion and equality.

This landmark collection, which marks the relaunch of the ground-breaking journal Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, brings together some of the leading international scholars in the field of race, ethnicity, migration and transnationalism to reflect on the changing landscape of research, theorisation and politics in this challenging contemporary context. The collection includes a powerful and typically provocative article by renowned race scholar Paul Gilroy, along with short ‘state of the field’ articles, critical interventions and think-pieces, each of which explores different geographical regions, emerging areas of research and new ways of ‘thinking’ identity in ‘uncertain times’.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power.