Written & Organized by 悦子yuezi
Issue Date: 2024/07/20

Basic Definitions

Ethnicity

• a group identity based on a belief in a common origin
• Ethnic groups highlight (supposed) unique cultural aspects to mark inter-group differences and hierarchy
• Often ethnic identity definition is relative to external “others”

Racial Division

• Social categorization based on phenotypic or biological criteria

Nationalism

• A group’s demand for autonomy in a territory considered to be the group’s homeland
• usually a demand for a sovereign state

Ethnic boundaries and culture

Social constructivist approach to ethnicity

• Ethnicity (and race, and nationhood) is a way of viewing the world. It belongs to the real of cognition (its “existence” not ontological but phenomenological).
• Ethnicity (and race, and nationhood) is a social construct: it is created and changes through social interactions and symbolic actions.
• Ethnic boundary making often through inter-group competition.
• Ethnicity has serious implications for people's lives.

Jekins: What is being constructed?

• Category's boundaries
• Beliefs about the traits or cultural contents that mark differences between "us" and them”

Characteristics of the ethnic boundaries

• Ethnic boundaries are fluid.
• Ethnic boundaries are sometimes blurred.
• These principles contrast with common sensical view of ethnicity (and race and nation).

The development of the boundaries approach to ethnicity

• Classic cultural anthropology → Barth → Post Barth

Classic cultural anthropology classified ethnic and racial groups based on supposed objective traits.
Classification system reflected power relations imperialism and colonialism)

Barth: Ojective definition of ethnic boundries

• Relationality. Ethnic groups are not developed in isolation, but through interactions with other groups (key observation: people cross ethnic boundaries!).

• What matters is the subjective demarcation of boundaries between “us” and “them” by people in the field.
• Ethnic boundaries limit and prescribe social interactions.
• Research should focus on the actions through which ethnic boundaries maintain or change.

Post Barth Research

• Greater emphasis on the fluidity of ethnic boundaries.
• Interest in the links between symbolic boundaries and social boundaries.
• Situational ethnicity/ethnicity as cognition
• Setting the limits to constructivism

Social Boundary and Symbolic Boundary

1. Social Boundary

• Social boundaries refer to the tangible and observable divisions that exist in the real world, separating and distinguishing different social groups.
• These divisions can be based on various factors such as geography, ethnicity, class, religion, or political affiliations.
• Social boundaries can influence the distribution of resources, power dynamics, and social interactions among individuals and groups.

2. Symbolic Boundary

• Symbolic boundaries are conceptual and constructed through cultural and symbolic representations.
• They involve the ways in which individuals and groups differentiate themselves and others based on shared meanings, values, and beliefs.
• Symbolic boundaries are not necessarily tied to physical or spatial separations; instead, they are rooted in the realm of ideas, language, and cultural practices.

Relationsips between Social and Symbolic boundaries

• Symbolic boundaries can reinforce or challenge social boundaries

Cultural representations and symbolic markers can strengthen group cohesion and reinforce social boundaries, leading to a sense of "us versus them." Conversely, symbolic boundaries can also be used to challenge and contest existing social boundaries, contributing to social change and transformation.

• Social boundaries can be legitimized through symbolic boundaries

The way a society conceptualizes and represents different social groups, often through media, language, and cultural practices, can legitimize and perpetuate existing social boundaries, either maintaining or reproducing social inequalities.

• Social boundaries may influence the formation of symbolic boundaries

The material conditions and power dynamics associated with social boundaries can shape the ways in which groups construct their symbolic boundaries. For example, oppressed or marginalized groups may use symbolic resistance as a means to challenge the dominant social order.

Further viewpoints

• Culture marks ethnic boundaries, but it also gives content and meaning to identities (“thick identity”).
• This does not mean that we should essentialize ethnic or national culture.
• Ethnic and national groups are sites of struggles over the meanings attached to a collective identity (e.g., different beliefs about the group’s history, its core values, etc., sometimes also about symbolic boundaries).

Boundary Work and Shifts

Nagel: What caused large-scale ethnic switching? What caused the fluidity?

• Federal policy
• Ethnic politics
• Political activism, shared fate, pride, and inspiration

Characteristics of fluid boundaries:

• Cultural differentiation

i.e., identifying certain cultural traits, habits, behaviors, etc. as typical for “us” or for “them”

• Social closure

closure and differentiation tend to reinforce each other

• Political salience

“thick” identities reduce the range of possible political actions; ethnic politics tends to reinforce differentiation and closure

Boundary work

• The phenomenon of individuals or groups creating, maintaining, adjusting, or breaking through various boundaries in society, such as ethnic, cultural, social, etc., to shape identity, group relationships, and social interactions.
• Ethnic categories may expand or contract (a focal topic in ethnic studies) due to boundary work.

Components of Boundary Work

• Type of boundary

which criteria for similarity/difference (e.g., ethnicity, race, gender, nationality, generation) is highlighted in the pursue or recognition and/or political power?

• Type of strategy

e.g., boundary crossing; normative inversion; expansion; contraction

• Location of boundary

membership rule: what is the criterion or threshold for being one of “us”?

Pan-ethnicity, situational ethnicity, the limit of constructivism

Situational Ethnicity

• Individuals or groups actively choosing to emphasize or express a specific ethnic identity in a particular context.
• This identity is determined by the current social environment, social situations, or specific contexts, and may change due to different situations.

Impacts of (activated) ethnic identification (self or other) on social interactions

• Cognitive schemes of interpretation (Brubaker：Ethnicity as Cognition)
• Affective dispositions (sometimes hot cognition)
• Behavioral tendencies
• But interactions can also generate shifts in the above (e.g., contact theory)

Two types of variation in ethnic identification

• Temporal (i.e., the conditions that evoke different degrees and expressions of ethnic identification).

e.g., In certain specific social events or cultural celebrations, individuals may express their ethnic identity more strongly, while in other everyday contexts, ethnic identity may be relatively weak or less prominent.

• Cross-sectional: hierarchies of identities (i.e., identities’ relative degree of salience).

e.g., A person may emphasize their professional identity more in the workplace, while emphasizing their ethnic identity more at family gatherings.

Instrumental ethnicity

• Sometimes ethnicity is used instrumentally, but that is because it has been internalized and is considered primordial.
• Also, there is a difference between superficial act of signaling and deep act of adopting/embracing an identity.
• The content of ethnic identity functions as a filter through which personal and collective goals are defined and sorted.

Managing ethnic diversity

What is a nation?

Defition:

Anderson (Imagined Communities, p.6): An imagined political community-and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.

What composes this definition?

• Imagined

Even in the smallest of all nations, a member will never know, meet, or event hear about most other members. However, the shared nation "exists" in the consciousness of its members.

• Limited

People imagined nations as bounded: in our minds, the world population is divided to distinct nations. Perceived criteria for national membership. There are Rules for how to join "our" nation.

• Sovereign

The nation is perceived by its members and outsiders who recognize its existence as sovereign or at least entitled to sovereignty. That makes the nation a political community: nations should run their own business based on shared goals.

• Community

The nation as an extended family or fraternity: a group whose members share an equality at a profound level. A community of feelings, solidarity, loyalty, and sometimes sacrifice (of people who are mostly anonymous to each other and also unequal in many respects).

How are (some) of the components may be related to ethnicity and interethnic relations?

• Nationhood (sovereign) and Nation-ness (internal unity and cohesion)
• A community of feelings and shared fate via the cultural stuff
• Ethnic mythology and symbols in the service of nationalism
• Myths of origin and antiquity
• A scared land via "poetic spaces" (e.g., archeological sites, battle fields, monuments, national map).
• Golden age, national heroes.
• The collective past as a moral yardstick for evaluating the present and blueprint for the future via collective goals (i.e., national revival).

What is nation-state?

• A territorially bounded sovereign polity-ie., a state - that is ruled in the name of a community of citizens who identify themselves as a nation.
• A fusion of two principles: state sovereignty and national sovereignty.
• Nation-state institutions nurture national sentiments.

For members of the nation, "their" state (which they usually see as their homeland) is the object of love, commitment or yearning.

Solutions to the problem of incongruence of cultural and political boundaries

Reducing / eliminating diversity：

• Oppression (by authoritarian regimes)
• Ethnic cleansing
  - Assimilation policies through centralized education and cultural institutions

Managing diversity:

• Political arrangements that contain ethnic diversity and reduce conflict

Typology of Democracies

• Republican liberal
• Individual liberal
• Consociational
• Multicultural
• Ethnic democracy

Some of the challenges to inclusionary management of diversity

• Large migrations

less assimilation + postnational incorporation (Soysal); resistance by host societies

• Indigenous Movements

request greater respect and protection for their culture and rights

• The rise of neo-nationalism

resulting in exclusion of multiculturalism, and even triggering discrimination and hostility towards specific ethnic or cultural groups

• Empowerment of populist-authoritarian leaders

tend to emphasize nationalism and xenophobia, and hold a hostile attitude towards ethnic minorities and immigrants

What is "postliberal" politics / citizenship?

• Demanding recognition in cultural uniqueness of ethnic minority (resistance to complete assimilation).
• Claiming collective rights for ethnic groups (in addition to equal/just distribution of resources).
• Demanding autonomy within the state for ethnic groups in their traditional territories.
• Demanding maintenance and extension of civil rights.

Ethic stratification and inequality

What is a Social Stratification?

• Institutionalized inequality (including legitimizing ideology)
• Inequality between social categories
• Inequality in access to different types of resources (e.g., economic, political, legal, health, etc.)

How does status translate into economic advantages?

• Ethnic division of labor (monopoly over certain occupations)
• Endogamy (marriage as an economic exchange)
• Stereotypes (affect the judgment of employment, landlords, policemen, judges, etc.)
• Ideology may justify alignment of status and class

Ethnic stratification via Political Arrangements

• Ethnic stratification in colonial and postcolonial states
• Global stratification (citizenship as a resource)

There is an unequal distribution of opportunities, privileges, and resources among individuals and groups in different countries or regions.

• Group discrimination by state institutions
• Differential access to certain jobs
• Mechanisms of inclusion/exclusion of immigrants based on their ethnicities

Assimilation/Integration/Segregation/Incorporation of Immigrant Ethnic minorities

Portes and Zhou: Three types of Acculturation Approach:

• Adoption of the dominant culture and assimilation in the middle-class.
• Adoption of a counter-culture and assimilation in lower classes.
• Social and economic mobility through maintenance of an ethnic group's culture, values, and solidarity.

The Impact of the Context in the Receiving Country and Society

• Government policy: receptive, indifferent, or hostile
• Societal reception: Prejudiced or nonprejudiced
• Co-ethnic community: Weak or strong

What drives certain groups to "choose" differentiation/assimilation?

• Skin color
• Place of residence
• Economic shifts
• Capacity to utilize them though different types of capital

The long-term effects of the "context"

• Government's assistance to immigrants improves their children's (and their children's) mobility chances.
• Sometime negative stereotypes persist for generations.
• Immigrant's decision to join strong ethnic community may affect the mobility of their offspring.

Ethnic Violence

Types of ethnic violence

• Ethnic riot
• Lynch
• Pogrom
• Ethnocide (of culture)
• Genocide (of people)
• Inter-state wars may include an ethnic component
• Civil wars

Previous reasons for collective violence：

• Violence is natural; a human tendency that had developed through evolution.
• Socialization to violence

(a) arguments about failed socialization; (b) arguments about socialization to non-normative behavior.

• Psychoanalytical argument

e.g., (a) violence as externalization of interna tensions; (b) violence as projection of suppressed traumatic social relationships (for instance, child-parents or child-teacher).

• Crowd psychology

people become violent during collective action that causes de-individuation and extasy

Ted Robert Gurr: Reasons for ethnic violence

• The basis of violence is frustration (frustration-aggression theory).
• Frustration stems from relative deprivation (not necessarily economic).
• An ethnic group’s leadership utilizes feelings of frustration and anger to mobilize them for protest and violence. Sometimes this is done as a cold-minded strategy.

Characteristics of Ethnic Riot

• Brutal
• Highly passionate, but with clear patterns

e.g., target selection, common order: trigger event, rumors spread, escalation, (expansion to other places), decline.

• Violence as meaning for participants
• Violence has general and immediate causes

distal/proximate causes
Violence reflects ethnic/racial cleavages, but it is not a necessary outcome of the cleavages

• A process with internal dynamic
• Trigger events often have special symbolic meanings
• Leaders may provoke feelings of frustration, rage, hatred, and fear

including by employing elements of collective memory

• Rumors are a key mechanism of mass mobilization for active or passive support.
• Aggressive reaction by the rival validate negative feelings and sense of righteousness, thus propagate violence
• Violence converts negative feelings to positive feelings

solidarity, pride, hope, even euphoria (Tambiah: Jubilant Destruction)

Wimmer: The Political Context of Violent Ethnic Conflicts

• Statistical association between ethnic violence and political competition and exclusion

– Ethnic uprising is more common in ethnocracies.
– Ethnic violence (especially coup attempts) is more common when ruling is divided between the elites of several ethnic groups.
– Ethnic uprising and coup attempts are more common in countries where an ethnic minority has a history of controlling part or the entire territory.

• Ethnic violence during the collapse of a polity

e.g., the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia. Mechanisms: political opportunity, contagion, security dilemma.

• Violence during or after elections

e.g., Kenya 2007-8 following rumors that the elections were stolen from the Kikuyu.

• Cities with intense political competition experience more ethnic violence

How people choose attitudes towards violence?

• Rational choice: Expected benefits/risks

Mechanisms: Social control, policing

• Symbolic politics: Participation in violence is emotional and sentimental (especially hatred and rage toward the enemy).

Mechanisms:

• People’s tendency to protect their group from symbolic threats or existential threats
• Elite’s manipulative use of ethnic myths and symbols to provoke hatred, rage, and fear of the enemy + internal solidarity and excitement
• Symbolic politics flattens identities, creates “collective mind”: identity dichotomy (us/them), stereotypical thinking (good/evil)
• Affective reactions: positive feelings about the home group and negative feelings about the enemy
• A spiral of revenge and escalation

• Institutionalized violence: Routinization and ritualization of violence

Circumstances and Mechanisms:

• Non-violent ethnic protests deteriorates to violence
• Actors that keep the ethnic conflicts “burning” (some of them provoke violence during crises : politicians, religious leaders, mural painters, gangs, local media
• Many ordinary people have experience, or at least memories from past episodes of violence: they “know” what their role is likely to be; they remember the solidarity and elation they felt; they may wait for an opportunity for revenge
• Therefore, the violence process looks like a ritual with clear roles and a predicted pattern of development
• In some cities, violence is expected, almost trivial