The viability of ethnic democracy: Jewish citizens in inter-war Poland and Palestinian citizens in Israel

Ethnic democracies are sustainable only if the two conflicting constitutional principles defining them as such – ethno-nationalism and liberal democracy – are successfully mediated by a third principle, of whatever kind. This is demonstrated through a comparative examination of inter-war Poland (1918–39), where ethnic democracy, while written into the constitution, never really took hold, and Israel (within its pre-1967 borders), where ethnic democracy was stable for thirty-five years (1966–2000) but may now be eroding. In both cases the fate of ethnic democracy is shown to be determined by the existence, lack, or decline of the mediating third principle.     

Rethinking ethnicity: Identity,categorization and power

This article argues that ethnic identity is to be understood and theorized as an example of social identity in general and that externally‐located processes of social categorization are enormously influential in the production and reproduction of social identities. However, much research concerned with ethnicity, particularly social anthropological research, inspired, whether directly or indirectly, by Barth's Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, has concentrated upon internal process of group identification, at the expense of categorization. To acknowledge the necessary role of categorization in the social construction of ethnic identity is also to recognize (a) the importance of power and authority relations (domination) in that process, and (b) a distinction, which is developed in this article, between the nominal and the virtual dimensions of ethnic and other social identities. Finally, the article offers an outline of a substantive research agenda concerned with contexts of social categorization.     

Ethnic heterogamy and the risk of partner violence in Mexico

A common stereotype holds that in Mexico male violence toward women is common among indigenous peoples and reflects cultural norms that sanction a male's domination of his female partner. We employ a recent Mexican survey to examine the relative risk of violence against women as a function of the couple's ethnic homogamy. Among couples in which both partners are either non-indigenous or indigenous the female's risk of partner violence is similar. Among heterogamous couples non-indigenous females in relationships in which the male is indigenous are at elevated risk of violence, while indigenous women in relationships with non-indigenous males are at a lower risk of violence. The stresses associated with heterogamy appear to be more salient in determining a woman's risk of violence than ethnicity per se. The implications for future research and the need to deal with the issue of ethnic homogamy in culturally heterogeneous populations are discussed.     

State and minority in Israel: the case of ethnic state and the predicament of its minority

The connection between ethnicity and democracy has been the subject of much debate among scholars in various disciplines. This article deals with the ethnic divisions and the debate over democracy in Israel. How Israel should be defined, with regard to the democracy-ethnic affiliation nexus, has long been debated by scholars in the field. Some present Israel as a consociational democracy. Some Israeli scholars consider Israel to be a liberal democracy. Others define it as an 'ethnic democracy' that balances the ethnic and democratic components in its dealings with its Arab-Palestinian citizen. In this article I claim that Israel, like many other countries (Romania, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Canada until the sixties, Malaysia) is not a democracy, if our criterion is the ethnic preference it shows for Jews. It is, instead, a textbook example of an ethnic state, applying sophisticated policies of exclusion and discrimination towards the Arab minority. In principle, it invites its Arab citizens to participate in its life; but under no circumstances does it offer them equality. It maintains Jewish superiority in all fields and grants them preference symbolically, structurally and practically.     

Children's labour in ethnic family businesses: The case of Chinese take‐away businesses in Britain

Reliance upon unpaid and committed family labour is said to make many ethnic businesses competitive. However, most analysts' references to this labour have not taken into account the nature of family members' and, in particular, children's work roles or the ways in which their labour is elicited and maintained. Here, the nature of children's labour participation in ethnic businesses is investigated in the case of families running Chinese take‐away businesses in Britain. This article focuses on how children in these families understand their often double‐edged experiences of ‘helping out’, as part of a ‘family work contract’, and on the ways in which families negotiate children's labour over time. Given these families' experiences of migration and ethnic minority status, I argue that Chinese children's work in take‐away businesses must be examined in relation to the intersections of family obligations and relationships, livelihood strategies and pressures, and issues of cultural identity.     

Excavating Culture: Ethnicity and Context as Predictors of Parenting Behavior

Ethnic, socioeconomic, and contextual predictors of parenting and family socialization practices were examined among African American and European American families. This is one of a set of coordinated studies presented in this special issue (Le et al.). With the goal of sampling African American and European American children and families that were roughly equivalent on socioeconomic indicators, 103 mothers and their children were interviewed when the children were in kindergarten, and 83.5% were interviewed again in fourth grade. There were no ethnic differences in mothers' reports of warmth and communication at kindergarten; mothers' and children's reports of behavioral control at fourth grade, and children's reports of warmth at fourth grade. Among the ethnic differences in the parenting constructs, a number of them were related to cultural variables. For example, African American mothers expressed higher levels of self-efficacy and this was positively related to beliefs in communicating ethnic pride in their children. Similarly, although African American mothers expressed lower levels of warmth than European American mothers at fourth grade, among African American mothers, warmth was positively related to ethnic pride and beliefs in ethnic equality. A similar pattern was found for Psychological Control at fourth grade. When parenting practices among African Americans are examined in relation to ethnic socialization goals and ethnic identity, endorsement of ethnic socialization and identity was associated with more adaptive parenting practices. Longitudinally, there were several notable changes in ethnic differences in parenting practices across age.     

The Association of Ethnic Minority Density with Late Entry into Antenatal Care in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, non-Western ethnic minority women make their first antenatal visit later than native Dutch women. Timely entry into antenatal care is important as it provides the opportunity for prenatal screening and the detection of risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes. In this study we explored whether women''s timely entry is influenced by their neighborhood. Moreover, we assessed whether ethnic minority density (the proportion of ethnic minorities in a neighborhood) influences Western and non-Western ethnic minority women''s chances of timely entry into care differently. We hypothesized that ethnic minority density has a protective effect against non-Western women''s late entry into care. Data on time of entry into care and other individual-level characteristics were obtained from the Netherlands Perinatal Registry (2000-2008; 97% of all pregnancies). We derived neighborhood-level data from three other national databases. We included 1,137,741 pregnancies of women who started care under supervision of a community midwife in 3422 neighborhoods. Multi-level logistic regression was used to assess the associations of individual and neighborhood-level determinants with entry into antenatal care before and after 14 weeks of gestation. We found that neighborhood characteristics influence timely entry above and beyond individual characteristics. Ethnic minority density was associated with a higher risk of late entry into antenatal care. However, our analysis showed that for non-Western women, living in high ethnic minority density areas is less detrimental to their risk of late entry than for Western women. This means that a higher proportion of ethnic minority residents has a protective effect on non-Western women''s chances of timely entry into care. Our results suggest that strategies to improve timely entry into care could seek to create change at the neighborhood level in order to target individuals likely of entering care too late.     

Becoming Italian,becoming American: ethnic affinity as a strategy of boundary making

Based on the case study of Albanian immigrant incorporation in a Little Italy in the Bronx, this paper develops the concept of ethnic affinity. It argues that boundary-work between ethnic Italians and Albanian immigrants resulted in intergroup relations that coupled Albanian occupational incorporation with the (re)construction of respective group identities as culturally similar – and distinct from Latino and African-American groups in the neighbourhood. Engaging recent literature on ethnic boundary making, I argue that ethnic affinity constitutes a new strategy of boundary reinforcing, in addition to established strategies of boundary crossing, blurring, and shifting (Zolberg and Woon 1999; Wimmer 2008). Developed in the context of shifting ethno-racial neighbourhood makeup, this affinity between ethnic Italians and Albanian immigrants relied on American constructions of shared European whiteness, overturning contemporary divides between Italians and Albanians in Europe. Ethnic affinity provides a conceptual framework that goes beyond notions of ethnic succession, passing, or assimilation.     

传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架

传统生态知识是民族生态学研究的核心范畴,国外已有多年的研究基础,国内的相关研究正是方兴未艾。通过文献查询和比较分析等方法,介绍了国外已有的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析框架的3个模型:知识-实践-信仰的三角形框架;本土经验知识-资源管理知识-社会制度知识-世界观知识的四椭圆框架;事实观察-管理体系-旧有及当下利用-伦理价值-文化特征-宇宙观的五边形框架。结合田野调查研究,提出了一个立体的传统生态知识的民族生态学分析模型,强调了传统生态知识的动态特征,将民族对于自然的被动认识和主动认知、民族人际关系规范、民族的哲学与伦理等方面所呈现出的传统生态知识进行了分类,从而为民族生态学的调查研究提供了方法上的建议。最后总结了这个立体的传统生态知识分析框架的意义,并建议在我国的生态文明建设中发展和应用民族生态学。     

Creating the conditions for peacemaking: theories of practice in ethnic conflict resolution

Establishing the conditions for effective intergroup peacemaking is a formidable task in severe ethnic conflicts. Conflict resolution practitioners argue that a critical first step is developing preconditions which convince competing groups that there are opponents to whom it is worth talking, that it is possible to create structural changes conducive to a stable peace, and that an agreement is possible which can meet each side's basic concerns and needs. This article compares six theories of practice of ethnic conflict resolution: community relations, principled negotiation; human needs; psychoanalytically rooted identity; intercultural miscommunications and conflict transformation, examining how each understands ethnic conflict; the goals it articulates; the effects of good practice on participants in interventions; the mechanisms by which the project achieves its impact; and the dynamics of transfer affecting the course of a wider conflict. It is argued that clearer articulation of these assumptions will improve both theory and practice in the search for settlements to severe ethnic conflict.     

Ethnic Minority Students in the Netherlands from a Cultural-Ecological Perspective

Ethnic minority students in the Netherlands have substantial educational disadvantages compared with Dutch students. Equally striking are the differences in school performance among the various ethnic minority groups. In this article, the educational position of ethnic minority students in the Netherlands is explored from a cultural-ecological perspective. The article concludes that cultural as well as educational differences between schools and parents have an impact on the school performance of ethnic minority students and that Ogbu's typology needs to be reconsidered.     

西南地区文化多样性时空格局

我国西南地区少数民族类别众多,各民族在历史发展中形成了许多优秀的文化传统和独特的生态意识。本研究以县级行政区为基本研究单元,基于民族类别及其人口定量测度了西南地区的文化多样性指数,并比较了1990年、2000年与2010年的动态变化。西南地区文化多样性指数具有明显的空间异质性,整体上呈现西北低东南高的格局。虽然文化多样性指数在时间序列上有一定程度的增加,但总体上县域尺度的文化多样性水平偏低。此外,随着空间尺度的扩大,文化多样性指数逐渐增加,即西南地区整体上表现为"大杂居,小聚居"的分布格局。省域尺度上,文化多样性的差异总和与各组分差异均随时间的推移而减少,同时,其民族构成的相似性趋于增加,表明西南地区各民族人口的分布更加融合,民族交融成为趋势。在西南地区的生态环境背景下,文化多样性的空间分布与平均坡度密切相关。研究探讨了民族融合的社会历史背景,分析了阶梯过渡带具有较高文化多样性的原因,并呼吁加强对西南地区优秀传统文化的重视与保护。     

Coping with ethnicity in South Asia: Bangladesh,Punjab and Kashmir compared

In the anthropological and sociological studies of India the terms ‘tribe’ and ‘caste’, have been in use for almost two hundred years. The related notions of ‘tribalism’ and ‘casteism’ were brought in to replace a static (structural) by a dynamic (organizational, processual) approach. Since the 1970s, ‘ethnic group’ and ‘ethnicity’ have gained currency. After defining the terms, three cases of ethnicity are examined, namely East Bengali Muslim, Punjabi Sikh and Kashmiri Muslim. It is argued that, while the first is a success story, the second seems more like a retreat at present, and the third is at best nascent. The reasons for this difference are explored. Ethnicity, it is argued, is not only characterization of identity, but also a set of strategies to establish a new state. This objective is opposed by competing ethnic groups and the existing state. Ethnic movements therefore involve violence and their outcome is dependent upon a variety of factors and therefore contingent.     

The experiences of ethnic minority police officers in Britain: under-recruitment and racial profiling in a performance culture

The findings draw on independent research conducted in the aftermath of the Macpherson Report of 1999 and are based on in-depth interviews with African Caribbean and South Asian officers in five British police services. Serving officers offer their frequently contrasting views on the underrecruitment of ethnic minority officers and their experiences in the police force and beyond. While many question whether increasing the recruitment of ethnic minority officers would make the widely-assumed positive impact in reducing racism, others maintain that it would; but they believe persistent habitual racist practices by white officers serves as the most formidable impediment to recruitment. Reasons are offered for this persistent racism. It is proposed that the trend towards assessing occupational performance in the police has had the unintended consequence of promoting racial profiling, or selecting ethnic minority groups for unfair treatment. Ethnic minority police officers are subject to racist abuse as a way of 'testing' them. They believe that, if they protest against either their own treatment or that of ethnic minority civilians, they may damage their careers. This perception acts as a deterrent to challenging racism in police work and contributes towards its continuation.     

Fair shares in health care? Ethnic and socioeconomic influences on recording of preventive care in selected inner London general practices. Healthy Eastenders Project.

OBJECTIVE--To describe the association of ethnic and socioeconomic status with recording of preventive care information by selected general practitioners. DESIGN--Random selection of people aged 20-64 registered with 43 general practitioners. Ethnic and social characteristics of stratified samples were determined at interview in the subject''s home. Recording of preventive information was ascertained from general practitioners'' medical records. SETTING--Inner London borough of Tower Hamlets. SUBJECTS--505 ut of 739 people confirmed as residents at their home address (190 white, 86 black, 112 Bangladeshi, 105 Chinese or Vietnamese, 12 other). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Socioeconomic characteristics, consultation with general practitioner, and recorded preventive activities for ethnic groups. RESULTS--Minority ethnic groups were considerably more disadvantaged than white people and five times more likely to be overcrowded (31% v 6%), three times less likely to own their own home(11% v 37%), twice as likely to be in social classes IV and V (54% v 28%) and less likely to be employed (34% v 63%). There were no significant differences between white, black, Bangladeshi, and Chinese or Vietnamese subjects in recording smoking, blood pressure, alcohol consumption, weight, and height in the general practitioners'' medical records. White women were more likely to have a record of mammography (46% v 20%; P=0.03) and of cervical smears than women in minority ethnic groups. CONCLUSION--Despite major socioeconomic inequity, equitable recording of preventive activity for the major causes of death for white, black and Bangladeshi populations is possible. Chinese and Vietnamese people had lower levels of recording and consultation. Mammography and, to a lesser extent, cervical cytology are inequitably recorded and require additional support at practice level.     

中华民族基因组多态性数据库的构建

为配合总体的实验研究构建了中华民族基因组多态性(Genomic Polymorphism of Chinese Ethnic Groups,简称GPCEG)数据库,现已初步建成包括民族名称、基本情况介绍、体态特征、基因多态性数据、永生细胞株系、参考文献、国际相关数据库连接等内容的数据库,并完成了其可视化浏览及查询系统的建立,为建成具有中国特色的国家自有数据库奠定了基础,也可为从事相关研究的科学工作者提供信息服务。     

Marriage and the maintenance of ethnic group boundaries: the case of Mauritius

Research on how cognitive and cultural biases shape marital decisions in Mauritius suggests that ethnic endogamy will remain the norm and maintain ethnic group boundaries. Results of a pile sorting exercise of Mauritian university students intimates that preferences for ethnic endogamy are paramount and override class-based considerations. Thus, despite socio-economic stratification within each ethnic group, inter-ethnic marriage is not common. Results from in-depth interviews suggest that individuals and their parents prefer to marry within their ethnic group to ensure that their spouse will abide by ethnically-specific norms and conventions, increasing the chances of coordinating reciprocal exchanges within a marriage. The presence of some inter-ethnic marriage does not weaken the boundaries between groups because children of inter-ethnic marriages tend to take on the ethnic identity and corresponding cultural norms of a single parent as a strategy to better negotiate social relations, and to marry someone of that same ethnicity.     

Modernity and ethnic affiliation in Israeli schools: A dependence approach*

In this article, we argue that there is an important, but as yet unidentified, process involved in the maintenance and reconstruction of ethnic identity. We call this process ‘ethnic reorganization’. We argue that this process is useful for understanding the ethnic survival of indigenous peoples in colonized societies, as well as for illuminating the processes of ethnic renascence among both indigenous and immigrant groups. We find it especially useful in accounting for both the persistence and the transformation of American Indian ethnicity in the United States. Ethnic reorganization occurs when an ethnic minority undergoes a reorganization of its social structure, redefinition of ethnic group boundaries, or some other change in response to pressures or demands imposed by the dominant culture. From this viewpoint, ethnic reorganization is a mechanism that facilitates ethnic group survival, albeit in a modified form. We specify several types of ethnic reorganization. These include: social reorganization, economic reorganization, political reorganization, and cultural reorganization. We argue that ethnic reorganization represents a central mechanism of ethnic change. We present evidence of these forms of ethnic reorganization among many different American Indian societies faced with demographic and cultural extinction.     

Apartheid's end: South Africa's transition from racial domination

South Africa's transition to inclusive democracy does not conform to the prevalent theories of either revolution, or élite controlled ‘pact‐making’ as in Brazil. As a country long divided between supporters and opponents of racial domination, the loyalty of the former prevented a revolutionary overthrow, and the resistance of the latter drove and impinged upon negotiations. To account for South Africa's transition, we must take cognizance of the history of racial domination as the central impediment to democracy in that country. I argue that such racial domination was encoded as a means of unifying white ethnic groups, previously at war. Over the course of this century, amidst ongoing tension, intra‐white conflict was diminished with policies unifying whites on racial grounds. But such policies, excluding blacks, provoked massive resistance. When white unity had been more largely achieved, and the nation‐state and its economy threatened by growing protest by the majority, apartheid was ended. This process conforms with the seminal argument of Dunkwart Rustow (1970), that democracy can be achieved only with greater ‘national unity’ gained through contestation.     

Canada's pluralism in comparative perspective

Hans Kohn's definition of a more "liberal, civic Western" and "illiberal, ethnic Eastern" nationalism has been highly influential in providing a framework for our understanding of different types of nationalism. This article challenges the Kohn framework as idealized and argues that it did not reflect historical reality and is out of step with contemporary theories of nationalism. Its continued use also ignores the evolution from communist to civic states that has taken place in central-eastern Europe during the 1990s. The assumption that Western nation-states were always "civic" from their inception in the late eighteenth century is criticized and a different framework is proposed that sees Western states as only having become civic recently. In times of crisis (immigration, foreign wars, domestic secessionism, terrorism), the civic element of the state may continue to be overshadowed by ethnic particularist factors. The proportional composition of a country's ethnic particularism and civic universalism has always been in tension and dependent not on geography but on two factors: the historic stage of the evolution from ethnic to civic state and nationhood and the depth of democratic consolidation.