Three Tensions in the Theory of Racial Capitalism

Three Tensions in the Theory of Racial Capitalism


Go J.

Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, Chicago, USA jgo34@uchicago.edu

ID of the Article: 8674

Rubric: Theory. Methodology

For citation:

Go J. Three Tensions in the Theory of Racial Capitalism. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2021. No 6. P. 14-23


  Full Text.


Abstract

In this essay the author assesses the relevance of scholarship on racial capitalism for sociological theory and highlights three tensions within the existing literature: (1) whether “race” as opposed to other forms of difference is the primary mode of differentiation in capitalism, (2) whether deficiencies in existing theory warrant the new concept “racial capitalism”, and (3) whether the connection between race and capitalism is a contingent or logical necessity. Existing discussions of racial capitalism implicitly or explicitly raise these tensions, but they do not adequately resolve them. Nonetheless, they remain important for generating further theory and research.


Keywords
foreign sociology; racial capitalism; racism; capitalism; Marxism

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Content No 6, 2021