The postindustrial metropolis and race-ethnic relations: A comparative study of economic restructuring in the United States of America and Italy

The end of the cold war has witnessed two striking sociological phenomena: unprecedented mass migration to the core countries---U.S. and Western Europe---and eruption of racial/ethnic conflict throughout the Globe. This work analyzes the causes of increasing racial/ethnic tensions occurring in the core countries, with particular attention to the metropolitan areas of the U.S. and Italy. The main argument is that the postindustrial economy features new patterns of socio-economic inequality that are expressed by the unequal distribution of socio-economic resources and minorities between the urban core and surrounding metropolitan periphery. In addition, contemporary migration flows differ markedly from previous periods due to their national origins---no longer Europe---and their preferred destination---no longer the central cities of major metropolitan areas. The combined impact of these phenomena is redefining racial/ethnic relations which are becoming a complex social configuration of increasingly heterogeneous minority groups.