South African Tradition of Racial Capitalism

This book documents the emergence and development of the theory of racial capitalism in apartheid South Africa. It interrogates the specificity of this theory in the South African context and draws lessons for its global applicability.

Racism and capitalism have a long history of entanglement. Nowhere is this more evident than in South Africa, where colonial and apartheid regimes used explicit systems of racial hierarchy to shore up profit. It is therefore no surprise that South Africa has represented a key site for thinking about the role that racism plays in shaping state policy, labor markets, patterns of capital accumulation, and working-class struggle. Illuminating these dynamics, this volume develops a distinctive South African tradition of thought about the relationship between racism and capitalism.

The South African Tradition of Racial Capitalism contributes to a burgeoning literature on the concept of “racial capitalism,” the origins of which many commentators trace back to apartheid South Africa. It pays particular attention to the crucial role of anti-apartheid activists as theorists, whose important insights remain relevant for scholars and activists around the globe. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Zachary Levenson is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Florida International University, USA, and Senior Research Associate in Sociology at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of Delivery as Dispossession: Land Occupation and Eviction in the Postapartheid City (2022).

Marcel Paret is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Utah, USA, and Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of Fractured Militancy: Precarious Resistance in South Africa after Racial Inclusion (2022).