Abstract
In an earlier essay1 on the problems of race relations in sociological theory, I suggested that there were three elements which were necessary and sufficient to characterise a situation as a race relations situation. These were that there should be a situation of abnormally harsh exploitation, coercion or competition, that this relationship should be between groups so that an individual could not simply choose to move himself or his children from one group to another, and that the system should be justified in terms of some sort of deterministic theory, usually of a biological sort. This definition differs, it should be noted, from definitions such as that given by Van den Berghe2 which characterises race relations situations as those in which phenotypical differences are made the basis for invidious distinctions and that of Boston3 who sees race as one amongst a number of possible role signs.
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References
See John Rex, “The Problem of Race Relations in Sociological Theory”, inRace and Racialism, ed. Sami Zubaida (London, 1970); and John Rex,Race, Colonialism and the City (London, 1973), ch. 17.
See John Rex, “The Problem of Race Relations in Sociological Theory”, inRace and Racialism, ed. Sami Zubaida (London, 1970); and John Rex,Race, Colonialism and the City (London, 1973), ch. 17.
Pierre van den Berghe,Race and Racism (New York, 1967).
Michael Banton,Race Relations (London, 1967).
See the footnotes to chapter 1 of John Rex and Sally Tomlinson,Colonial Immigrants in a British City (London, 1979).
Immanuel Wallerstein,The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York and London, 1974); and Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy (Cambridge, 1979). See also Robert Brenner, “The Origins of Capitalist Development: a Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism”,New Left Review 104 (1977); also Jarius Banarji, “Modes of Production in a Materialist Conception of History”,Capital and Class 3 (1977); and Homza Alavi, “The Colonial Mode of Production”,Socialist Register (1975).
Immanuel Wallerstein,The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York and London, 1974); and Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy (Cambridge, 1979). See also Robert Brenner, “The Origins of Capitalist Development: a Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism”,New Left Review 104 (1977); also Jarius Banarji, “Modes of Production in a Materialist Conception of History”,Capital and Class 3 (1977); and Homza Alavi, “The Colonial Mode of Production”,Socialist Register (1975).
Immanuel Wallerstein,The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York and London, 1974); and Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy (Cambridge, 1979). See also Robert Brenner, “The Origins of Capitalist Development: a Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism”,New Left Review 104 (1977); also Jarius Banarji, “Modes of Production in a Materialist Conception of History”,Capital and Class 3 (1977); and Homza Alavi, “The Colonial Mode of Production”,Socialist Register (1975).
Immanuel Wallerstein,The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York and London, 1974); and Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy (Cambridge, 1979). See also Robert Brenner, “The Origins of Capitalist Development: a Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism”,New Left Review 104 (1977); also Jarius Banarji, “Modes of Production in a Materialist Conception of History”,Capital and Class 3 (1977); and Homza Alavi, “The Colonial Mode of Production”,Socialist Register (1975).
See especially, Eric Williams,Capitalism and Slavery (London, 1944).
Especially Max Weber,General Economic History (New York, 1961).
See Irfan Habib,The Agrarian System of Moghul India (Delhi, 1966), for the tax system; and J.C. van Leur,Indonesian Trade and Society (The Hague, 1955), for an account of pre-European trade in the Indian Ocean.
See Irfan Habib,The Agrarian System of MoghulIndia (Delhi, 1966), for the tax system; and J.C. van Leur,Indonesian Trade and Society (The Hague, 1955), for an account of pre-European trade in the Indian Ocean.
C.R. Madan,Western Sociologists on Indian Society (London, 1980).
See Weber,General Economic History, chs. 22–23.
Not merely in Weber’sGeneral Economic History, but also in his thesis on trading companies in the Middle Ages, in several of the major sections ofEconomy and Society, 3 vols. (New York, 1967), and in hisAgrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations (London, 1964).
Weber,General Economic History, ch. 6.
See Gilberto Freyre,The Masters and the Slaves and The Mansions and the Shanties (New York, 1946 and 1963, respectively).
Hugh Tinker,A New System of Slavery (London, 1974).
John Rex, “The Compound, the Reserve and the Location — the Essential Institutions of South African Labour Exploitation”, South African Labour Bulletin 1 (1974).
It has been pointed out to me by Dr. Charles Coppel of the University of Adelaide, for example, that the Chinese in Indonesia are by no means exclusively secondary traders, and that their Confucianism has adapted itself remarkably to contact with Christians, Muslims and others.
Frederick Johnstone,Class, Race and Gold (London, 1976).
Harold Wolpe, “Industrialism and Race in South Africa”, in Zubaida,Race and Racialism.
Wolpe, “Capitalism and Cheap Labour Power in South Africa”,Economy and Society 1.(1972); and “The White Working Class in South Africa”,Economy and Society 5 (1976).
For a good account of the role of missions in this respect under colonialism, see Roland Oliver,The Missionary Factor in East Africa (London, 1967).
Marx and Engels,Collected Works, vol. 1 (Moscow, 1962 ).
See William J. Wilson,The Declining Significance of Race (Chicago, 1974).
Michael Smith,The Plural Society in the British West Indies (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1965).
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Rex, J. (1982). Racism and the Structure of Colonial Societies. In: Ross, R. (eds) Racism and Colonialism. Comparative Studies in Overseas History, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7544-6_11
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