Transcript INTER Project - Univerzita Karlova v Praze

Unit 3
Introduction to terminology:
Ethnicity, race, minority,
multiculturalism & racism
Laura Laubeova
[email protected]
Unit Structure
•
•
•
•
•
•
Activity on identity
Ethnicity, race, minorit, relationship, racism
Multiculturalism
Racism, discrimination
Inclusion, rights, equity
Homework 1
Identity and Inclusion
• Citizens are not only individuals, but also
members of particular religious, ethnic,
cultural and regional communities….Britain is
both a community of citizens and a community
of communities…Every society must find a way
both to nurture diversity and foster a common
sense of belonging and a shared identity.
(Parekh, 2000, pp. viii-ix)
Activity
Spend a moment now thinking about your own
multiple identities
• I have thought about my own and started off
with…..white woman, wife, mother, grandmother,
grandchild of Russian immigrants who fled the
pograms; raised in South Africa, lived and worked in
England for most of my life; teacher and writer;
immediate connections through my upbringing and my
family with Dominica in the Caribbean, Canada, South
Africa, West Africa, New Zealand, Guatemala; loves
music and gardening.
When you have done this, the next step is for you as
a group to learn about each other and consider the
overlaps between your own and others’ sense of who
they are
.
Physically move around the room to form small groups
who share at least one of your identities (e.g. thinks
themselves as musical). Change the categories decide
for yourselves a category.
Whilst you are emphasising your
personal and individual identities
through let us say, art, poetry, music
or dance, the important concept here
is how identities overlap.
Ethnicity, race, culture, identity,
racism, discrimination
• Eriksen, T. H.: “Ethnicity, Race, Class and Nation “,
text 4, in Hutchinson, John, Smith Anthony, eds. (1996) Ethnicity
• Van den Berghe, Pierre: “Does race matter?”,
text 9, in Hutchinson (above)
• Cornell, S., Hartmann, D. (1998) Ethnicity and Race.
Making Identities in a Changing World
text on The definition of race
• Richmond, A. (1994) Global Apartheid
on power, conflict, identity (good description of race and ethnicity)
Definitions related to ethnicity
From ethnic category to concepts of ethnic community.
“Ethnie“ is
a named human population with myths of common
ancestry, shared historical memories,
one or more elements of common culture, a link with a
homeland,
a sense of solidarity among at least some members.
- covers both majority and minority population.
vs
multiple identities,
situational (transcending) ethnicities,
hybridity
2 basic + 3 complementary approaches:
1. Primordialists
focus on primordial ties (but static naturalist, ethnic id.
overlapping with other types of id.)
Sociobiologists - mechanisms of nepotism and
inclusive fitness based on genetic reproductive
capacity (reductionism)
2. Instrumentalists
Symbols for political goals, rational choices. Socially
constructed nature of ethnicity.
But neglect wider cultural environment, affective and
collective dimensions. Interests only in material
terms.
Approaches to ethnicity – cont.
3. Transactionalists
Frederick Barth – social boundaries, ascribed ethnicity
4. Social psychological
Horowitz, Tajfel
5. Ethno-symbolists
Myths & symbols. nostalgia… AD Smith, Armstrong
(Hutchinson, Smith: Introduction)
See also Cornell, Hartmann, in Reader p. 15:
Circumstantialists vs Primordialists
Race
• Biology & natural sciences – no longerr since 70´s
• Race remains a legitimate concept for sociological
analysis because social actors treat it as real and
organise their lives and practices by reference to it
(van den Berghe)
• Robert Miles: race is only an ideological construct
that is used by social scientists for legitimising the
status quo
• D. Mason : “Clearly there are no such things as
races. Yet it is equally clear that large numbers of
people behave as if there are”
Race in biology
see researches in genetics in the 80´s
e.g.
Rose, Steven, Lewontin, Richard, Kamin, Leon
(1990) Not In Our Genes. Biology, ideology and
human nature, London: Penguin Books
Stephen Gould (1996) The Mismeasure of Man
Ellis Cashmore (1996) Dictionary of Race and
ethnic relations
Race – cont.
Mason: „race is a social relationship in which
structural positions and social actions are
ordered, justified, and explained by reference
to systems of symbols and beliefs which
emphasise the social and cultural relevance
of biologically rooted characteristics“.
• In other words, the social relationship race
presumes the existence of racism and
institutional racism.
Preamble of the EU Race Directive
“The European Union rejects theories which
attempt to determine the existence of
separate human races. The use of the
term "racial origin" in this Directive does
not imply an acceptance of such theories”.
Race is a social construct, i.e. a category
without any biological underpinning
Race vs ethnicity
• Race is often treated as ideology
• ethnicity as a real phenomenon.
• Racial refers mainly to physical terms,
• ethnic rather to cultural terms.
• Race refers to them,
• ethnicity to us.
• Both concepts always imply social relationship.
Minority
• ”group of people distinguished by physical
or cultural characteristics
• subject do different and unequal
treatment by the society in which they live
• and who regard themselves as victims of
collective discrimination“
1945 Louis Wirth
Minority - cont.
• must be a 'non dominant' group;
• its members must 'possess ethnic, religious or
linguistic characteristics differing from those of
the rest of the population‚
• must also 'show, if only implicitly, a sense of
solidarity, directed towards preserving their
culture, traditions, religion or language'
(Capotorti as quoted from MRG).
Minority - cont.
• Also non dominant groups that may
be a numerical majority in a state,
• those who are not necessarily
nationals or citizens of the state
where they reside.
MRG