Ethnicity

In this extensively revised edition, Steve Fenton updates his concise and accessible introduction to ethnicity, drawing on new published work and recent social and historical changes. Discussing an extended range of theorists and illustrations from around the world, Fenton explores and clarifies the core meanings and the shifting ground of this contested concept. More space is given to ideas of 'threat' and 'competition' in conceptualizing ethnicity, as well as to recent issues in migration, especially increased migration to the US from Central and South America. Fenton situates ethnic identities and interest in the changing modern world, and seeks to explain the contemporary conditions of delineation along ethnic and racial lines. Without assuming the centrality of ethnic difference, this book asks: Does it matter? When does it matter? Is it as important as many have assumed? The second edition of Fenton's highly regarded Ethnicity will continue to be an invaluable text for students of sociology, politics and international relations coming to the subject for the first time. Its innovative and challenging approach will also appeal to more advanced scholars of race and ethnicity. COVER Contents Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition First Edition Acknowledgements Second Edition Acknowledgements Introduction The ontological status of the term ‘ethnicity’ An example of groups and names Fixed categories and diffuse identities Do people act by reference to their ethnic identity? Ethnic cleansing or racial segregation? 1: Ethnos: Descent and Culture Communities Shared references Stock, type, people, breed Nation Race The demise of race Culture and ethnicity are not the same Defining the core and the divergences Summary 2: Multiple Discourses of Ethnicity: Differences by Country and Region The USA Immigration to the USA Changes of the late twentieth century Ethnicity and changing ideas of race Where have all the races gone? The case of the UK Discourse of races in postcolonial Malaysia Asia and Latin America Ethnic classification across the world Summary: ethnicity and nation in their place 3: The Demise of Race: The Emergence of ‘Ethnic’ Ethnic group (ethnie) and nation The demise of race Scholarly, popular and political ideas Lloyd Warner and American ethnic groups The scholarly tradition: Max Weber and ethnic groups Anthropology and social anthropology Real groups Summary 4: The Primordialism Debate Primordialism ‘Primordial’ as a sociological concept Edward Shils and primordial, personal, sacred and civil ties Clifford Geertz and the integrative revolution After Geertz Judith Nagata and mobilized identities Summary: primordial ethnic groups 5: How Real are Groups? Political Ethnicity, Symbolic Ethnicity and Competition Theory Cultures and boundaries Competition theory Class as a complicating factor in ethnic competition analysis; ethnicity as a complicating factor in class analysis Critiques of groupism Summary 6: Migration and Ethnicity Forced migrations Migrants and plural societies World migration Internal migrants Professional migrations Undocumented workers Migration, gender and family Questions of integration and citizenship The case of the USA: migration and ethnicity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries America’s growing Hispanic population Hispanics and Mexican Americans: social profiles Likely futures for new migrants and their families and for American ethnicities The renewed debate about the concept of assimilation Occupational structure: the hourglass labour market Summary: the opposing views 7: Social Conditions of Ethnicity: Global Economy and Precarious States Theorizing the conditions of ethnic action Features of the contemporary world Postcolonial economic conditions William Julius Wilson and the disappearance of work Economic change and Hispanic migration into the USA Precarious, factionalized, democratizing states: unstable geopolitical conditions Ethnic conflict, violence, insecurity and the state Ethnicity and geopolitics Post-Soviet Russia Summary 8: Ethnic Majorities and Nationalism in Europe: Globalization and Right-Wing Movements The nation Nation, class and resentment Nation and majority Class, welfare, the state and immigrants Right-wing movements in Europe Multiculturalism and identity politics Summary: reflections on nation, resentment and identity 9: Ethnicity and the Modern World: General Conclusions A theory of ethnicity? Ethnicity as theory Sociology of ethnicity: identity and action in context Late capitalism and the modern social world The contradictions of late capitalist modernity Individualism Two worlds – the liberal and the authoritarian Four principal problematics Modernity and ethnicity Ethnicity in its place Bibliography Index 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. Steve Fenton. Includes Bibliographical References (pages [204]-220) And Index. This text discusses key debates in the sociology of ethnicity and race, arguing that ethnicity is culturally expressed and politically and economically contextualised. World-wide examples are used to give an international and comparative perspective