Having briefly hinted at the issues raised by the study of ideology (definition, genesis, ontology, function, truth, interest, and content), I shall now try to sketch out a simple theoretical framework which best accommodates what I have to say about British discourse affecting race relations. What follows is neither profound nor original but is an attempt to make explicit my underlying assumptions so that they may be more readily criticised.

From the point of view of the social observer, certain structures may be picked out as significant for understanding and explaining the responses of social actors. Their perception and knowledge of the structures with which they are faced may be entirely different from the social observer's. Thus, the social observer is able to compare his account of how he thinks structural mechanisms operate with the account offered by the social actors. Although a correspondence between them need not be assumed, prima facie, the reason why these two accounts of the same phenomenon should differ stands in need of explanation.

What then is this social observer's conception of the social structure? I accept that the economic aspect of the social structure plays a dominant part in the lives of all social groups and individuals, although they themselves need not use economic categories in the description and explanation of that structure. In describing and explaining the economic structure of British society, I make use of the categories and theory of Marxist and Marxist-derived political economy.