Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference
About: This article is published in British Journal of Sociology.The article was published on 1970-06-01. It has received 4205 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Social organization & Ethnic group.
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TL;DR: In this article, a social-spatial dimension is added to ethnicity construction while acknowledging the production of ethnicity as constructed through a relation of the 'here and now' and an imagined (common) past.
Abstract: This article adds a social-spatial dimension to ethnicity construction while acknowledging the production of ethnicity as constructed through a relation of the ‘‘here and now’’ and an imagined (common) past. Empirically, social-spatial analysis is elaborated by looking at how social difference is produced in multi-ethnic schools through classroom interaction both in the USA and in the Netherlands. In our analysis, we are concerned with how ‘‘school’’ becomes evoked or produced in student discourse while ethnic positions are established. At the same time we show how spaces such as migrant neighborhoods and homelands are evoked and related to school spaces. The results show that more general mechanisms can be distinguished of how students use these spaces in their constructions of otherness across the data sets, but that the quality and complexity of these mechanisms are specific and can be related to the more general (migration) histories of the ethnic groups.
26 citations
Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."
...The interactive construction and negotiation of difference was stressed over a one-to-one relationship between ‘‘what cultures are’’ and how people identify with them (Barth, 1994, 1969)....
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TL;DR: The authors examines the use of "Muslim" as a politicised identity category in Europe, connecting it to broader geopolitical developments, and asking why and to what extent it is employed by different actors to either engage or contest the liberal state.
Abstract: This article examines the use of ‘Muslim’ as a politicised identity category in Europe, connecting it to broader geopolitical developments, and asking why and to what extent it is employed by different actors to either engage or contest the liberal state. Examples of two distinct types of deployment of the term are presented. The Muslim Council of Britain provides an example of an umbrella organisation that has deployed the identity category as a means of making collective claims on behalf of British Muslims and/or lobbying vis-a-vis the state, thus engaging in identity politics and acting as an interest representation group. A contrasting example is provided by the organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, which deploys the category as a means of asserting a political identity in opposition to the liberal state, directly juxtaposing the category of ‘Muslim’ with ‘British’. While a group such as Hizb ut-Tahrir represents a minority perspective, it nonetheless provides a concrete example of an explicitly ‘illiberal pol...
26 citations
Cites background from "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The S..."
...…of those who argue that certain immigrant populations have been shut out of the political life of their host society, and hence have withdrawn or isolated themselves from the political process, channelling their participation into communal and sectarian activities (Barth 1969; Ireland 1994)....
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Book•
04 Oct 2018TL;DR: The authors traces nationalist activists' efforts to divide Upper Silesian communities, which were bound by their Catholic faith and bilingualism, into two 'imagined' nations, and traces these efforts, which ranged from the 1848 Revolution to the aftermath of the Second World War, through the local newspapers, youth and leisure groups, neighborhood parades, priestly sermons and electoral outcomes.
Abstract: In the bloody twentieth-century battles over Central Europe's borderlands, Upper Silesians stand out for resisting pressure to become loyal Germans or Poles. This work traces nationalist activists' efforts to divide Upper Silesian communities, which were bound by their Catholic faith and bilingualism, into two 'imagined' nations. These efforts, which ranged from the 1848 Revolution to the aftermath of the Second World War, are charted by Brendan Karch through the local newspapers, youth and leisure groups, neighborhood parades, priestly sermons, and electoral outcomes. As locals weathered increasing political turmoil and violence in the German-Polish contest over their homeland, many crafted a national ambiguity that allowed them to pass as members of either nation. In prioritizing family, homeland, village, class, or other social ties above national belonging, a majority of Upper Silesians adopted an instrumental stance towards nationalism. The result was a feedback loop between national radicalism and national skepticism.
26 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: The authors explored if the old concepts of Orientalism on China has ever changed in modern times and how the modern images of China and the Chinese are framed in the contemporary British news media.
Abstract: At the beginning of the twenty-first century, with China’s remarkable success in economic
developments and greater openness to the outside world, two sharply opposing views of
China have appeared in the Western perception of China - a rising superpower as well as a
threat to the West, economically, militarily and environmentally. The West, particularly the
US and Britain fears that China is likely to take advantage of its growing economic and
geopolitical influence in order to change the world’s power pattern.
Within such a social context, this thesis sets out to explore if the old concepts of
Orientalism on China has ever changed in modern times and how the modern images
China and the Chinese are framed in the contemporary British news media. It is carried out
through four cases – Chinese migration, Hong Kong handover (1997), Tibet issue and
Sichuan Great Earthquake (2008). More specifically, the thesis examines: how the two
dominating masterframes – ethno-nationalist and liberal individualist masterframes coexist
or compete with each other in the reporting; and what the differences are between
newspapers in terms of frame choice and the ratio of struggle between two frames.
The study implies that the old Orientalist stereotypes, such as ‘Yellow Peril’, which were
used to describe China and the Chinese have not often appeared in the recent British news
media representations in the selected four cases. Instead, the liberal individualist views
have been widely and deeply embedded in the British news reporting, criticising China
being essentially a Communist dictatorship as opposed to Western democracy. Additionally,
the relations between two masterframes appear in three forms – coexistence or intertwining,
supporting each other, and struggle.
26 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: The Formation of the Korean Chinese Transnational Migrant Class by June Hee Kwon Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University as mentioned in this paper was a seminal work in the field of mobile ethnic mobility.
Abstract: Mobile Ethnicity The Formation of the Korean Chinese Transnational Migrant Class By June Hee Kwon Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date: _______________________ Anne Allison, Supervisor Ralph Litzinger, Supervisor
26 citations