John Rex
The Second Project of Ethnicity: Transnational Migrant Communities and Ethnic Minorities in Modern Multicultural Societies
Abstract
The theory of ethnicity has been developed in recent years largely in connection with the study of nationalism. What this paper seeks to show is that while there is a common core in the theory of ethnicity, nationalism is not the only project on which it is focussed. The other project is that of migration which leads to the formation of transnational communities, which have no nationalistic ambitions, nor necessarily a diasporic urge to return to the homeland. The paper seeks to outline some of the main structural features of such communities using the example of Punjabi Sikh migration. It also seeks to describe the main structural features of the relationship which emerges between such communities and modern national societies in which they settle.
Dan Smith
Nationalism and Peace: Theoretical Notes for Research and Political Agendas
Abstract
The mainstream school of Anglophone theory on nationalism is the starting point for considering how it might be possible to prevent nationalist conflicts turning violent, or ameliorating them after they have. The leading members of this school do not take up this task. Four reasons for this are identified - anti-essentialism, normative cosmopolitanism, functionalism and a narrow historical focus. The first of these is sacrosanct but the others can be modified without basic damage to the theory. Outline ideas to this end offer a different normative attitude that recognizes the benefits of nationalism, a concentration on questions of identity to compensate for functionalism and a broader historical basis for the theoretical explanation of nationalism, which need not be seen exclusively as the product of modernity. These research agendas also point the way to some political conclusions about the durability of nationalism, peaceful policies for it and a long-term approach to avoiding its worst excesses.
Yulian Konstantinov
Hunting for Gaps Through Boundaries: Gypsy Tactics for Economic Survival in the Context of the Second Phase of Post-Totalitarian Changes in Bulgaria (1994 -)
Abstract
Bulgaria appears to be entering - economically and politically - a second phase in its post-totalitarian development: a period of privatization of state industry. The measures which are likely to accompany this process will pose severe obstacles to small-scale traders - in their majority Bulgarian Gypsies - importing goods from Turkey. On the basis of field-study observations of the markets of Bulgaria and Turkey (Istanbul) this paper describes the survival strategies adopted by the Gypsies in contemporary Bulgaria and attempts to predict the likely influence of the upcoming privatization phase on their lifestyles and life perspectives. It specifically seeks to explore the ways and methods whereby legal and administrative regulations, as well as moral boundaries, are dealt with by ethnic groups who have limited access to the administrative and popular mechanisms for the imposition and enforcement of the regulations.
Floya Anthias
Rethinking 'Race-Conscious' Policies in Britain
Abstract
This paper argues that anti-racism and multiculturalism tend to homogenize ethnic or minority groups by using static and reified conceptions of race, ethnicity and culture. Consequently, they fail to address the multiplicity of racisms as forms of exclusion and the notion of racism as entailing different outcomes for gender and class categories as well as for different ethnicities.
Steven Vertovek
Multi-Cultural, Multi-Asian, Multi-Muslim Leicester: Dimensions of Social Complexity, Ethnic Organization and Local Government Interface
Abstract
Although "multiculturalism' is a term increasingly employed in social science and in the public sphere, there is a dearth of comparative research and a lack of detailed studies showing the complexity of social groups, the variety of their forms of organization, and their emergent forms of interaction or interface with local government which the term "multiculturalism' should ideally entail. Here, set in the context of the British East Midlands city of Leicester, an examination of the makeup, socio-economic position, organizational structure, and nature of government interface surrounding one minority segment is provided to indicate such complexity and variety and to submit material for further comparative study. Numerous layered and cross-cutting backgrounds, identities, and mobilized groups among Asians are described, as are several significant modes and processes of interaction and political representation, particularly among Muslim citizens. In highlighting the activities of certain individuals, associations and umbrella groups representing minorities, together with programmes and undertakings initiated by local government, the importance of minorities having multiple points of interface is stressed by way of proposing more progressive models of multiculturalism.
Carl-Ulrich Schierup
The Right to be Different: Multiculturalism and the Racialization of Scandinavian Welfare Politics; the Case of Denmark
Abstract
'Multiculturalism' as an influential ideology for structuring ethnic relations has become exposed to increasing critique also in the Scandinavian context. The paper discusses a racialized political debate, legislation, and institutional practices, taking Denmark as the prime example. An increasingly "dual welfare' is becoming leginimized through a hegemonic culturalized language, consistently interpreting "the right to be different' as 'being different', and "being different' as being "non-integrated'. In a society where public debate on ethnic and racial discrimination is less than rudimentary, tolerant claims of multiculturalist relativism are effectively turned upside down in the service of neo-racism, the preachings of which are imperceptibly becoming adopted as the conventional wisdom. This calls for a discussion on "politics of recognition' which brings the debate on the universalism and particularity out of the abstract, while focusing on the vicissitudes of contemporary democracy in a changing welfare state.
Bhikhu Parekh
Equality, Fairness and Limits of Diversity
Abstract
Most western societies today are multi-ethnic and multicultural. As such they need to determine the range of permissible diversity and develop a consensus on what an equal and fair treatment of minorities implies. This paper takes some of the controversial minority practices and analyzes the debates they provoked in Britain. It ends by suggesting how best to reconcile the community's desire to preserve its identity with the demands of fairness and equality.
John Crowley
Social Complexity and Strong Democracy
Abstract
The pluralistic liberal paradigm of democracy has shown its inability to guarantee economic prosperity and political stability and, as a consequence, has become increasingly vulnerable. Within political theory, democratic criticism of liberalism has mainly proceeded along two paths. On the one hand, communitarians have challenged liberal atomism and sought to rehabilitate the community as the focus for social life and human personality. On the other hand, "strong' democrats have rejected the political division of labour characteristic of liberalism and sought to revive the ideal of participatory democracy. There are many points of contact between these two strands of thought indeed some nfluential writers have explicitly subscribed to both and radical communitarianism has had an important influence in practical politics over the past 15 years. However their fundamental theoretical assumptions clash, in particular because strong democracy has an implicit bias towards social uniformity that contradicts the essential premise of communitarianism. The most straightforward way out of this problem is multiculturalism, i.e. the conception of society as a liberal federation of strong communities. How much scope this leaves for true democracy is however unclear.
Claudio Bolzman
Stages and Modes of Incorporation of Exiles in Switzerland: the Example of Chilean Refugees
Abstract
Many scholars perceive the incorporation of refugees and immigrants to a new society as a matter of time: the longer the length of residence, the more the refugees and immigrants perceive their stay in the host society as permanent. Other social scientists go even much further: they perceive adaptation not only as a linear process but also as an inevitable and desirable process which should lead to the disappearance of immigrants as an ethnic community and to their assimilation to a new society. In this paper we argue that incorporation to a new society is not necessarily a linear process depending exclusively upon length of residence. We also argue that assimilation is not necessarily the end result of this process. In our opinion, linear and assimilationist approaches neglect macro-social context and, to a lesser extent, social stratification which are important variables influencing the incorporation process of migrants to a new society. The empirical study of Chilean refugees in Switzerland shows the relevance of these factors and also of the actor's own perception of the situation in the definition of different stages of exile.
