This ESRC funded project examines international debates about racism and ethnic mobilisation in order to understand the particularities of context and event that have given rise to political movements against racism. In doing this, the series is designed to engage with wider debates around political disengagement, the character of political agency and the impact of so-called single issue and identity politics on movements for social change. In our present moment of multiple crises, these questions of political agency and participation have become heightened, most of all in relation to a younger generation whose life choices and chances are being curtailed by the impact of austerity, economic crises, political unrest, scarce ecological resources and, for some, continuing militarization of everyday life. Recent critiques of fundamentalism and exclusionary nationalisms have pointed to the role of ethnic mobilisation in creating divisions and hatreds. However, there are other histories of ethnic mobilisation that are not based on such exclusionary logics. Some of these movements have played an integral role in wider movements for social justice and change. This series examines the contexts that have enabled mobilisations around 'race', ethnicity, or, in some circumstances, religion to become a component of or catalyst for wider struggles for social justice.