The Structural Order of Neoliberal Racial Capital

Tilley, Lisa

Abstract

This chapter explores the structural order of neoliberal racial capital as both replacement for and continuation of the colonial order of value extraction from Global South to North. Neoliberalism is presented as a counter-revolution against decolonization, which has worked to restore flows of value by undermining Global South sovereignty, protecting international capital markets from the collective will of Southern peoples, and solidifying racial hierarchies of finance that structure unequal exchange and extraction. The neoliberal order restored and extended what this chapter identifies as the “plantation mode of finance,” which extracts from, and alienates, the Southern social base and delivers cheapened resources to the metropolitan market. Central to maintaining financial hierarchies within this order is the mobilization of risk as a mode of racial extraction in itself. Finally, the chapter covers how the continuing atrophy of socioecological life has been facilitated and accelerated by the structural order of neoliberal racial capital.

Citation

Tilley, L. (2025). The Structural Order of Neoliberal Racial Capital. In S. Goddard, G. Lawson, & O. J. Sending (Eds.), Oxford Handbook on International Political Sociology (456-469). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198854708.013.22

• Acceptance Date: Feb 5, 2024
• Publication Date: Apr 24, 2025
• Deposit Date: Apr 9, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 25, 2026
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 456-469
• Book Title: Oxford Handbook on International Political Sociology
• ISBN: 9780198854708
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198854708.013.22
• Keywords: neoliberalism, finance, capital, extraction, race, risk, structural order, sovereignty