Suchergebnisse

Abstract. Ethnicity is here viewed as a continuum, varying widely in terms of salience, intensity and meaning, along which several types of ethnicity can be distinguished. Domination ethnicity is where a nation imposes monocultural control – it can be regarded as a form of ethnicity. Enclosure ethnicity has three variants – dormant ethnicity, cultural confinement, and inward‐looking ethnicity. Competition ethnicity competes over resources of the state and development. Finally, optional ethnicity is of low intensity and is light, volitional and fluid, as in the case of ethnic entrepreneurs and symbolic ethnicity. What is considered as well are the dynamics of ethnicity, shifting from one mode to another. The politics of ethnicity is here taken up in terms of emancipation and domination. Perspectives on ethnicity are framed by the changing meanings of ethnicity over time. The final question concerns the endgames of ethnicity, or the paths of change of different types of ethnicity, and how each relates to ethnic conflict regulation.

Spanische Gitanos oder Calé bilden eine der größten Roma-Minderheiten in der EU. Während sie über Jahrhunderte am Rande der spanischen Gesellschaft lebten, haben sich ihre Lebens- und Bildungsbedingungen in den letzten drei Dekaden stark verbessert. Der Artikel fokussiert auf die Bildungssituation der Gitanos und arbeitet empirische Studien auf, die in den letzten Jahren in Spanien zum Thema veröffentlicht wurden. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass sich die Bildungssituation dieser ethnischen Minderheit einerseits verbessert hat, andererseits aber nach wie vor gravierende Bildungsdisparitäten zur Mehrheitsbevölkerung bestehen. Abschließend werden einige aktuelle Herausforderungen diskutiert, die für diesen speziellen Fall ethnischer Bildungsungleichheit relevant sind.

Der Verfasser geht von der Annahme aus, dass Europas Grenzen nur als komplexe, sich überlappende Grenzgefüge zu erfassen sind. Räumlich sind sie durch Küstenlinien festgelegt, in sozialer Hinsicht aber werden Mitgliedschaftsräume (Verwandtschafts-, Siedlungs-, Religions- und Sprachgrenzen) relevant, die meist erst durch Grenzüberschreitung ins Bewusstsein rücken. Es wird gezeigt, dass Europa sich nicht nur durch territoriale und kategoriale Einteilungen auszeichnet, sondern auch dadurch, dass Grenzerhaltung und Grenzüberwindung sich verbinden. Ethnische Grenzen werden als ein Sonderfall innerhalb der europäischen Grenzstrukturen dargestellt, nämlich als Folge der Nationalstaatsbildung, der Kolonisation und der Wanderung. Der Glaube an die gemeinsame Abstammung, der sich häufig mit Territorialansprüchen verbindet, lässt ethnische Differenzen entstehen, die sich durch Besonderheiten der Sprache, Kleidung und Folklore hervorheben lassen. Aus dieser Sicht ist kein europäischer Staat ethnisch homogen. Wanderungen verschieben Beziehungsnetze über die nationalstaatlichen Grenzen hinweg. Kolonisation schiebt den Territorialraum über den Mitgliedschaftsraum. Ethnizität hängt nicht allein von den modernen Nationalstaaten ab, aber letztere sind ein günstiger Boden, aus dem ethnische Bewegungen emporwachsen. Hinzu kommt aber die vielfache europäische Religionsspaltung zwischen westlicher und östlicher Christenheit, Katholizismus und Protestantismus, Christentum und Islam. Trotz häufig gewaltsamer Entladungen lässt sich Ethnizität nicht in umfassendere Zugehörigkeiten umbilden, da sie flexible Selbstbeschreibungen sind, die im modernen Europa den Wunsch nach mehr Individualität kanalisieren und zugleich den Verlust anderer institutioneller Stabilisatoren abfedern. (ICG2)

A letter to the editor concerning Alexander Shtromas's "Religion and Ethnicity in World Order" (International Journal on World Peace, 1992) takes issue with Shtromas's conceptualization of national minorities, his vision of universal ethnosegregation as the ideal new world order, his claim that ethnic homogeneity is a prerequisite for democracy, & his desire to impose ethnic engineering on vulnerable nations & states. It is asserted that national liberation & international justice can only be achieved via the institutionalization of a democratic principle that transcends ethnocentrism & embraces ethnoegalitarianism. W. Howard

After examining the concepts of ideology, nationalism, & ethnicity, conditions under which culturally justified conflicts may arise within modern nation-states, as well as conditions for their resolution or avoidance, are identified. It is contended that a successful ideology (eg, nationalist or ethnic) must legitimize a social power structure & provide an effective means of articulation for the needs & wishes of its adherents. Examples from a number of multicultural societies are used to illustrate conflicts & compare the methods employed to resolve them. Conditions necessary for peaceful multicultural existence include: equal access to the educational system, labor market, & other shared facilities; the availability of national identity to all citizens regardless of cultural difference; sensitivity to possible culturally contingent differences in definitions of situations, as reflected in the state policies regarding multiculturalism; refusal of the state to identify with a set of symbols representing limited populations; & decentralized power in local political organizations. 1 Figure, 22 References. Adapted from the source document.

The politics of identity and ethnicity are resurgent. Civil society, whose revival was much vaunted, was riven by communal tensions particularly of ethnicity and religion. The contributors address questions such as: Why is ethnicity a political problem? How is the problem manifested? Which institutional models offer ways of ameliorating the challenges that ethnicity poses to democratic nation-building? North America: Ohio U Press.

AbstractUsing Slavic examples, the article looks at the nationalism/security nexus present today between the birth of ethnicities (early middle ages) and the birth of nationalism (eighteenth century). I discuss how Slavic ethnicity emerged in Greek and Roman security thinking. Others were classified in terms of ethnoi and were then interpellated into this self‐understanding. If ethnicity is an identity for the Other, then nationalism is an identity for the Self. It becomes a security concern not to order the Other polity's identity, as did the Byzantines, but to see to it that groups that may threaten your own nationalism – minorities, imperial subjects – cannot embrace nationalism. The policy of denying nationhood to minorities must be understood amongst other things as security policy. The organic understanding of the nation as young and vital demonstrates a third interstice between security and nationalism. If the young and vital nation is to grow and expand at the expense of the old and tired, then the polity that represents itself as a young and vital nation is by dint of that representation alone a security threat against those that they represent as old and tired. Finally, I discuss how this theme is played out in today's Russia

If a civil war begins, it is more likely to be initiated by an ethnic group than any other type of group. We argue that ethnic groups, on average, are likely to have more grievances against the state, are likely to have an easier time organizing support and mobilizing a movement, and are more likely to face difficult-to-resolve bargaining problems. We further argue that each of these factors was likely due to three pre-existing patterns associated with ethnicity. First, when political power is divided along ethnic lines, ruling elites can disproportionately favor their own ethnic group at the expense of others. This creates grievances that fall along ethnic lines. Second, ethnic groups tend to live together in concentrated spaces, sharing the same language and customs, and enjoying deep ties with ethnic kin. This means that ethnic groups, if they are aggrieved, will have an easier time mobilizing support to demand change. Third, the fact that ethnic identity tends to be less elastic than other types of identity means that credible commitments to any bargain – before and during a conflict— will be more difficult to make. The result is that ethnic groups will have a greater number of reasons, opportunities, and incentives to mobilize and fight than non-ethnic groups.

The aim of this article is to analyse the role of ethnic music in the life of the Tatar minority in Poland as an example of creative ethnicity. On the one hand, modern Tatar musical practices construct an interesting example of "invented tradition" because the studied group does not have "musical memory", while on the other hand, these activities are aimed at the group's future. Music can fulfill different social functions. In the case of ethnic groups, three of these functions seem to be particularly relevant: integrational, political (ideological) and identity. Desk research reveals the formal and informal musical practices undertaken by Polish Tatars. The values and musical assets associated with Tatar culture reflect the minority's identity. The main statement of the article is that music is an important element that contributes to constructing the contemporary group's identity. Tatar music is becoming an essential element of Tatar culture, enhancing a sense of the group's distinctiveness. The contemporary Tatar music groups construct a significant Tatar showcase to the audience outside of the Tatar ethnic group, as well as form an important identity element of the Tatar community and a manifestation of creative ethnicity. It is also possible to find correlations between their repertoire and contemporary group transformations, including those related to its identity.

A perusal of the contents of any social science journal will indicate that ethnicity has been a popular topic during the past two decades. Yet despite the volume of material produced, this period has not seen a notable increase in theoretical sophistication in the field (Drummond 1983:803; Young 1983). For the most part students of ethnicity remain mired in antique arguments about motivation that obscure as much as they illuminate. The following discussion attempts to break through some entrenched conceptual blinders by drawing on the theory of practice outlined by Pierre Bourdieu (1977). This theory avoids the explanatory gaps and fallacious reasoning and at the same time allows richer interpretations of ethnic phenomena, individual and collective, than do conventional models of ethnicity. Since individual and collective expressions of ethnicity have elicited divergent theoretical treatments, the practice theory of ethnicity promises to give new unity to a fragmented field of study.