The politics of ethnic identity: Comparing South Africa

South Africa represents a microcosm of major global conflicts. This laboratory of polyethnic group relations may well teach the rest of the world a lesson of multiracial coexistence and a bridging of extreme class distinctions through pragmatic development policies. Above all, a ‘negotiated revolution’ now promises peaceful nation‐building in a divided society, previously riddled with political violence. The remarkable democratic transformation has led to a substantial decline of politically‐motivated killings so far, although criminal violence has risen. The democratic transition rests partially on the skilful management of racial and ethnic perceptions. Non‐racialism as the core ideology of the new state elicits different expectations and meanings among various segments, differentially privileged and indoctrinated by more than four decades of apartheid. A general theoretical and comparative interpretation of ethnicity sheds light on the legitimacy of competing claims and assesses their prospects and character in light of experiences elsewhere.

Support for Mandela's non‐racial reconciliation remains as soft as the electorate's rejection of the Africanist‐nationalist Pan African Congress could be temporary. As the ANC government is likely to disappoint some high expectations of its constituency and has itself joined the gravy train through extraordinary high salaries for the new officials on the public payroll, the temptation simmers to use populist racial rhetoric. However, as long as government shortcomings are shielded by Mandela's charisma and high approval rate among all population groups, racial antagonisms will be dampened by the desire to succeed economically in an inextricably interdependent consumer society.     

The politics of ethnic representation in Philippine bureaucracy

The good governance argument for diversity in civil service is based on the notion that creating a bureaucracy that represents the diverse communities it serves strengthens government accountability and legitimacy. This paper argues that ethnic representation in national bureaucratic governance in the Philippines primarily constitutes a means for political reallocation of space, as it is embedded in the government's framework of asymmetric political autonomy. Mired in intersecting political and ethnic tensions (i.e. blurred ethnic distinctions/ethnic identity disputes and politico-ethnic conflicts), patrimonial forces could easily exploit the country's bureaucratic representation policies as spaces for patronage and as superficial tokens to mollify interethnic factions of their share of the national polity. Thus, instead of facilitating equitable voice in bureaucratic governance, such policy framework could only hold ordinary indigenous and minority ethnic communities captive in the elite-dominated interethnic struggle for representation.     

The making and breaking of the endoplasmic reticulum

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a dynamic organelle central to many essential cellular functions. It is an important calcium store, which functions in cellular signal transduction cascades. It is also the site of entry for secreted proteins into the secretory pathway. Lumenal enzymes will fold and glycosylate these proteins, and if a protein is destined to be secreted, it will be packaged into membrane vesicles that bud off from the ER. The ER is also the site where most cellular lipids are synthesized. It is contiguous with the nuclear envelope, which serves as a diffusion barrier to control entry into and out of the nucleus. In the life cycle of a cell, the ER is in a constant flux of membrane traffic. What maintains the ER in the shape of an intact reticulum among this constant flux of material? We discuss the mechanisms that contribute to the biogenesis of the ER, the maintenance of the organelle, as well as processes that give the ER its characteristic shape and pattern of inheritance.     

The politics of genealogical incorporation: ethnic difference,genetic relatedness and national belonging*

This paper explores the relationship between genomic accounts of ethnic origins and distinctiveness and genealogical models of ethnic and national similarity and difference. It does so by focusing on genetic investigations of Irish Traveller origins in the context of ongoing campaigns for state recognition of Irish Travellers as an ethnic group, and in relation to the politics of national belonging. The ostensibly ethical practice of liberal genomics is entangled with the fraught politics of the Irish state’s commitments to addressing ethnic minority rights, insistence on differentiating between Travellers and other ethnic groups on the basis of genealogical difference, and the genealogical incorporation of Travellers within the national community of shared descent. Though ideas of ancestral relatedness across social or cultural boundaries are often figured as politically progressive, locating groups within a national family tree on the basis of genealogical relatedness can simultaneously deny ethnic difference and naturalize exclusive models of nationhood.     

Philosophy,politics and extralegal action: Native Indian leaders in Canada*

Immigration and asylum are key political issues in Britain and the European Union. Yet the policies of states and supranational bodies seem to have had little success in preventing unwanted flows and effectively managing immigration and integration. This article examines three types of reasons for policy failure: factors arising from the social dynamics of the migratory process; factors linked to globalization and the North-South divide; and factors arising within political systems. Key issues include the role of migrant agency, the way the North-South divide encourages flows, and hidden agendas in national policies. EU efforts attempts to address the root causes of migration in countries of origin are discussed. The article concludes that migration policies might be more successful if they were explicitly linked to long-term political agendas concerned with trade, development and conflict prevention. Reducing North-South inequality is the real key to effective migration management.     

Evolutionary novelties: the making and breaking of pleiotropic constraints

Body plans are remarkably well conserved, but on (very) rareoccasions important novelties evolve. Such novelties involvechanges at the genotypic and phenotypic level affecting bothdevelopmental and adult traits. At all levels, duplicationsplay an important role in the evolution of novelties. Mutationsfor duplications, including mutations for duplications of bodyparts, as well as mutations for other changes in the body plan,in particular homeotic ones, occur surprisingly frequently.Hence the limitation of mutations appears to be relatively unimportantfor the conservation of body plans. However, mutations for duplicationsof body parts and homeotic changes rarely persist in populations.We argue that the root cause of the conservation of body plansis the strong interactivity during the patterning of the embryonicaxes, including the interactivity between patterning and proliferationprocesses. Due to this interactivity, mutations cause many negativepleiotropic effects (malformations and cancers) that dramaticallylower fitness. As an example, we have shown that in humans thereis extreme selection against negative pleiotropic effects ofthe, surprisingly frequent, mutations affecting the number ofcervical vertebrae. Moreover, we argue for the relevance ofrelaxed selection, which temporarily allows just-arisen noveltiesto persist, for the effective breaking of pleiotropic constraints.We illustrate this with two empirical examples.     

The presence of the past: youth,memory making and the politics of self-determination in southeastern Nigeria

This article focuses on recent reconstructions of Igbo ‘memory’ by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign state of Biafra (MASSOB). MASSOB is a second-generation Igbo separatist movement that draws on a collection of ‘memory repertoires’ to agitate for the self-determination and exit of the Igbo ethnic group from the Nigerian state into an alternative political and administrative arrangement known as the Republic of Biafra. The core issues relate to dual narratives generated by the Nigerian–Biafran War. While the state shapes the official history, memories and narratives of the war to suit its own vision, interests and politics, MASSOB contests these official views as the sole legitimate framework for remembering and interpreting the war, but still connects to the war as a war of Igbo national liberation. These contestations provide the context for the enactment of memory claims and counterclaims, and their association with political violence in contemporary Nigeria.