Far from its origins in US legal studies in the 1980s, critical race theory has grown to become a leading approach to the analysis of racial inequality around the world. It has courted much controversy along the way, often misunderstood and poorly defined. So what precisely is critical race theory and what makes it different from other theories of race, racialization and racism?

In this incisive book, Ali Meghji defines the contours of critical race theory through the notion of the ‘racialized social system’. He thereby excavates a solid social theory that clears up many empirical and conceptual questions that continue to surface, offering a flexible, practical model for studying structural racism. In making his case, Meghji pays attention to the multiple dimensions of the racialized social system, focusing on core phenomena such as interaction orders, material interests, ideologies, emotions, and organizations.

In a context where any work mentioning ‘race’ gets defined as critical race theory, this book expounds an approach that promises to be more generative for the social scientific study of race.