Kritik der „ethnischen Ökonomie“

Abstract

The idea of a specific „ethnic economy“ is based on the misperception, that e.g. immigrants organize their lives according to a pre-capitalist („traditional“) mode of production, which is thought to be characterized by a mixture of personal relationships (e.g. kinship) and economic practice. Such perceptions of the other have been criticized as „culturalism“ or „ethnicism“. The idea of an „ethnic economy“ is interpreted as a contribution to ethnicism and, considering the present circumstances of hegemonic discourse, to racism too. This effect could be avoided if the modification of marxist theory by Pierre Bourdieu is recognized.