Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Race and Colonialism in the Construction of Labour Markets and Precarity

Ashiagbor, Diamond (2021) Race and Colonialism in the Construction of Labour Markets and Precarity. Industrial Law Journal, . pp. 1-26. ISSN 1464-3669. (doi:10.1093/indlaw/dwab020) (KAR id:91381)

Abstract

This article explores the interconnections and continuities between racial inequalities in the contemporary labour market and the legacies of colonialism and racial distinctions woven into the evolution of market economy. It argues that race is embedded in the legal form by which labour is regulated. In its focus on the legal relations between individual subjects, namely, the contract of employment, the dominant legal form for governing work relations, the standard employment relationship, erases from view the broader social and economic structures within which the bilateral relationship exists—that is, the unpaid work of social reproduction and the colonial extraction which make paid work possible. The article identifies a number of ways in which race, racism and the legacies of colonialism are implicated in the evolution of market economy and latterly in the construction of the postwar welfare state and contemporary labour market institutions. First, in the racial capitalism of slavery. Second, in the colonial extraction and commodification of labour power from the global South for the benefit of markets in the global North. Third, in relation to migrant labour and racialised segmentation of the labour market.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/indlaw/dwab020
Uncontrolled keywords: Labour, law, race, colonialism, economic sociology of law, racial capitalism
Subjects: K Law > K Law (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Diamond Ashiagbor
Date Deposited: 06 Nov 2021 19:09 UTC
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2022 12:27 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/91381 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.