Sociology and the study of race: Contemporary perspectives for southern Africa?

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Abstract
This paper argues that there are three main views of the origins and directions of race relations research: the concept of these studies as arising from the concerns of scholars and then provoking a wider social concern; the melioristic concept which sees these studies as springing from an interest in improving race relations; and the view that race relations studies have developed largely as a result of an alliance of interest between the superordinate and exploitative elements in our social systems and the cognate perspectives of the integrationist‐consensualist schools in sociology. It is suggested that the proper role for those studying race relations is the modest one of acting as rational catalytic agents in the process of change. Such a role does not require that researchers attempt to rid themselves of all value perspectives and judgements. In particular it is argued that sociological research on race in Southern Africa must be contextual and comparative, synthetic and synoptic, and discern the articulation between culture and the structural conditions to which it is an adaptation. Further, it is argued that in Southern Africa sociological research on race relations must give prominence to the structural arrangements and power relationships of the particular societies being studied.