Plasticity of Contemporary Racism: Postcolonial Model Anomalies and Emergence of Castles-Kosack 1973 Analysis

Abstract

Although contemporary racism has been interpreted from a large number of perspectives, since the end of World War II, its nature was associated with Colonialism, a type of analysis based on the approach of race relations and complemented by the approach of the world-system. The present study develops a comparative analysis between the postcolonial model and the model generated by Stephen Castles and Godula Kosack in 1973 (occasionally Migrant labor theory or Political economy of migration theory). The conclusions of our research suggest that the second model supports an adequate investigative capacity in its analysis, by focusing its explanations on the mobility of the massive flows of the non-spontaneous labor force (large masses of reserve workers) that arise from the capitalist needs. In this way, this paper offers guidelines that can help future research on explanatory models of contemporary racism.

Plasticity of Contemporary Racism: Functionalist Orientation Anomalies and Emergence of Social Conflict Theory

“…in Western Europe.Most of these works suggested that social conflict was not a consequence of cultural development but a premise imposed by capitalism. With the exhaustion of the colonial paradigm as an explanatory model of contemporary racism, the so-called Castles-Kosack 1973 analysis (seeCansinos, 2020a) allowed us to appreciate how conflict defined individuals' daily lives. Following John Rex and Robert Moore, theCastles-Kosack 1973 analysis assumed on the new race relations that «the total situation is essentially one of conflict; any fear, distrust or dislike of another ethnic group is sharpened by market competition.…”