This collection is made up of papers and interviews first presented at a conference on Race, Discourse and Power in France held at the University of Leeds in March 1989. It includes both theoretical reflections on race and empirical analyses and also brings together French and British researchers. The subject is particularly relevant today since, during the 1980s, the question of immigration moved to centre stage in French politics. However, it was the intention of the conference to focus not on immigration per se, nor indeed on the problem of immigration. The problems being considered were those connected with the function of the concept of race in contemporary French society.