Abstract:

This lecture ponders the possibilities and pitfalls of the “racial capitalism” concept as a social theory. While the literature on “racial capitalism” has grown in recent years,  theoretical systematicity, acuity or coherence has yet to be attained, leading to multiple criticisms of the concept. This talk addresses these criticisms and offers a synthetic theory of racial capitalism that can absorb them. It argues that most existing critiques are misplaced, and a “contingency-contextual” theory of racial capitalism offers a way forward.

Speaker Biography:

Julian Go is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Chicago, where he is also Faculty Affiliate in the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, & Culture and the Committee on International Relations. His research explores the US and British empires, anticolonial/postcolonial theory, theory and methods in global historical sociology and social theory more broadly. His scholarship has won prizes from the American Sociological Association, the Eastern Sociological Society, the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association, among other organizations. He is the winner of Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda Setting in Sociology given by the American Sociological Association. His professional roles includes recently serving as the President of the Social Science History Association. He is also co-editor of the American Journal of Sociology’s Book Review and serves on the editorial boards of various journals, including the British Journal of Sociology and the American Journal of Sociology.

Suggested Readings for Seminar:

This is a good background to my lecture (without duplicating the lecture): Go, J. (2021). Three Tensions in the Theory of Racial Capitalism. Sociological Theory, 39(1), 38-47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735275120979822

We gratefully thank the MacFie Bequest for supporting the seminars.

Date: Wednesday 16 April
Time: 13:00
Venue: Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, 82 Hillhead Street, Glasgow, G12 8QQ

For additional information and queries, please contact Tim.Winzler@glasgow.ac.uk.

First published: 1 April 2025

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