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Beyond Racial Dualism: Racial Disadvantage and Ethnic Diversity in the Labour Market

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Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment

Abstract

Marx’s famous dictum that history is made by human beings but not under conditions that they choose is widely accepted by social scientists. Its attraction stems from the fact that it succinctly expresses the need to give due weight to both agency and structure. Social change is only possible because of human action but such action is in turn constrained by social forces. And yet when we examine research on race and ethnicity, we find that it tends either to highlight the structural forces which result in the social exclusion of particular racially defined groups or to celebrate the actions of human beings in sustaining distinct ethnic cultures. Marx’s dictum seems to have been forgotten.

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Authors
  1. Andrew Pilkington
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, UK

    Mike Noon (Professor of Human Resource Management) (Professor of Human Resource Management)

  2. Cardiff Business School, UK

    Emmanuel Ogbonna (Senior Lecturer, Director Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration) (Senior Lecturer, Director Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration)

Copyright information

© 2001 Andrew Pilkington

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Cite this chapter

Pilkington, A. (2001). Beyond Racial Dualism: Racial Disadvantage and Ethnic Diversity in the Labour Market. In: Noon, M., Ogbonna, E. (eds) Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333977880_11

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