The Politics of Difference
Ethnic Premises in a World of Power
University of Chicago Press
Will be published approx. on 1. August 1996
Book
Hardback
220 pages
978-0-226-90016-2 (ISBN)
Description
According to most social scientists, the advent of a global media village and the rise of liberal democratic government would diminish ethnic and national identity as a source of political action. Yet the contemporary world is in the midst of an explosion of identity politics and often violent ethnonationalism. This volume examines cases ranging from the well-publicized ethnonationalism of Bosnia and post-Apartheid South Africa to ethnic conflicts in Belgium and Sri Lanka. Scholars including John Comaroff, Stanley J. Tambiah and Ernesto Laclau argue that continued acceptance of imposed ethnic terms as the most appropriate vehicle for collective self-identification and social action legitimizes the conditions of inequality that give rise to them in the first place. This attempt to explain the inadequacies of current approaches to power and ethnicity forges more realistic alternatives to the volatile realities of social difference.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chicago
United States
Publishing group
The University of Chicago Press
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 23 mm
Width: 16 mm
Thickness: 2 mm
Weight
482 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-226-90016-2 (9780226900162)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
Preface Edwin N. Wilmsen, Patrick McAllister. Introduction: Premises of Power in Ethnic Politics Edwin N. Wilmsen 1: Varieties of Ethnic Politics and Ethnicity Discourse Jan Nederveen Pieterse 2: Universalism, Particularism, and the Question of Identity Ernesto Laclau 3: Thinking Identities: Against a Theory of Ethnicity Aletta J. Norval 4: Hegemony, Power, and Languages of Contention William Roseberry 5: Ethnogenesis and Ethnic Mobilization: A Comparative Perspective on a South African Dilemma John Sharp 6: European Concepts of Nation-Building Jan Blommaert, Jef Verschueren. 7: The Nation-State in Crisis and the Rise of Ethnonationalism Stanley J. Tambiah 8: "The Voice of Sanity Getting Hoarse"? Destructive Processes in Violent Ethnic conflict Stephen Ryan 9: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the Politics of Difference in an Age of Revolution John L. Comaroff List of Contributors References Index