Ethnos : descent and culture communities -- Multiple discourses of ethnicity : differences by country and region -- The demise of race : the emergence of 'ethnic' -- The primordialism debate -- How real are groups? : political ethnicity, symbolic ethnicity and competition theory -- Migration and ethnicity -- Social conditions of ethnicity : global economy and precarious states -- Ethnic majorities and nationalism in Europe : globalization and right-wing movements -- Ethnicity and the modern world : general conclusions
IN THIS REVIEW ESSAY, RECENT SIGNIFICANT WORKS ON THE SUBJECT OF COMPARATIVE ETHNICITY ARE SITUATED IN THE BROADER CONTEXT OF CULTURAL PLURALISM AS AN EMERGENT INTERDISCIPLINARY FIELD, THE REASONS FOR THE CRUSTALLIZATION OF CULTURAL PLURALISM AS A DISTINCTIVE FIELD OF INQUIRY ARE EXPLORED. THE RISE OF ETHNIC STUDIES WAS OBVIOUSLY TRIGGERED BY THE GROWING SALIENCY OF COMMUNAL CONFLICT IN ALL REGIONS OF THE WORLD. THE LOW VISIBILITY OF SUCH CLEAVAGES IN THE EARLY POSTWAR YEARS MAY BE ATTRIBUTED TO CONJUNCTURAL FACTORS. IMPORTANT LONG-TERM TRENDS INCLUDE THE BROADENING AND DEEPENING OF PATTERNS OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION AND COMPETITION THROUGH URBANIZATION, EXPANDING LITERACY, MASS MEDIA, AND POPULATION MOVEMENTS; THESE PROCESSES ARE APT TO PRODUCE HEIGHTENED COMMUNAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND POLITICIZATION OF ETHNIC CLEAVAGES. THE GREAT EXPANSION IN THE SCOPE OF STATE ACTIONS RISES THE STAKES IN ISSUES OF DIVISION OF THE NATIONAL PRODUCT AND DOMINATION OF THE STATE APPARATUS. A LARGE CONSENSUS HAS EMERGED IN THE LITERATURE AS TO THE SITUATIONAL, CONTEXTUAL, AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NATURE OF ETHNICITY. WITHIN THE COMPARATIVE ETHNICITY LITERATURE, AN IMPORTANT DIVISION HAS APPEARED BETWEEN "INSTRUMENTALISTS," WHO STRESS THE PURSUIT OF COLLECTIVE ADVANTAGES, AND "PRIMORDIALISTS," WHO FOCUS UPON THE ASSUMED GIVENS OF SHARED CULTURE AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF ETHNIC CONSCIOUSNESS.
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
In: Europa ethnica: Zeitschrift für Minderheitenfragen ; mit offiziellen Mitteilungen d. Föderalistischen Union Europäischer Volksgruppen, Band 45, Heft 4, S. 161-177