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Revisiting “Racial Capitalism”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2023

Sanjay Subrahmanyam Open the ORCID record for Sanjay Subrahmanyam [Opens in a new window]
Sanjay Subrahmanyam*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of California at Los Angeles [subrahma@history.ucla.edu].
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Abstract

The brief essay is a response to an article by the French sociologist Loïc Wacquant which critiques the concept of “racial capitalism” that has gained much prominence and currency in recent times. It offers a historical analysis of the emergence of “race” as a concept in the Euro-Atlantic sphere and points to the complexities in extending it beyond that space, into the Indian Ocean world for example. As a consequence, the ambitious claims made by some theorists of “racial capitalism” appear difficult to sustain.

Keywords

AsiaAtlanticcapitalismcasterace
Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , August 2023 , pp. 173 - 181
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Journal of Sociology

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