Explaining the Conflict Potential of Ethnicity

  • Crawford Young
Chapter

Abstract

Ethnicity, as collective phenomenon and form of identity, has in the contemporary world a singular capacity for social mobilization. Although it is not inherently conflictual, ethnicity has psychological properties and discursive resources which have the potential to decant into violence. No other form of social identity, in the early twenty-first century, has a comparable power, save for the closely related forms of collective affiliation, race, and religion. Social class, however significant a political vector, lacks in most settings the clarity of boundaries, the primordial dimensions, and affective resonance evident in ethnicity. Other forms of social categorization, such as occupation, gender, political affiliation, or the many other kinds one might list, although frequently a basis for competition and conflict, fall far short of the potential volatility of ethnic consciousness. The task of this chapter is to unravel the distinctive properties of ethnicity which explain this phenomenon.

Keywords

Ethnic Conflict Shared Ancestry Cultural Pluralism Discursive Resource Ethnic Violence 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

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© Crawford Young 2008

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  • Crawford Young

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