The Concept of Ethnicity: Strengths and Limitations for Quantitative Analysis

© Cambridge University Press 2012. In the previous chapter, John Lonsdale (Chapter 1) argued that ethnicity is a sense of belonging that influences, and is influenced by, a number of factors, and hence its defining characteristics can, and are indeed likely to, change over time. He goes on to argue that relations between ethnicity and markets vary, depending on what is traded, where it is traded and who is doing the trading. From this perspective, ethnicity is seen as inherently difficult to measure, and its relation with the economy cannot be represented by a simple algebraic equation. Lonsdale thus calls for extreme caution in interpreting, or even in accepting, the claims of an increasing number of political scientists and economists who have incorporated ethnic groups into their (empirical) analyses or use ethnic diversity as an independent variable for explaining a range of social and economic outcomes, most notably relating to violent group mobilisation, secessionist movements and economic growth differences (see, for example, Collier and Hoeffler 1998; Easterly 1997; Rodrik 1999; Sambanis 1999). This skepticism towards quantitative approaches is widely shared among historians and anthropologists, including Berman (Chapter 5) and Shipton (Chapter 7). Martin Doornbos has strikingly captured this position as follows: ‘Ethnicity does not explain anything, it needs to be explained’ (Doornbos 1991: 19). This chapter takes a different perspective and shows how economists and political scientists are increasingly developing and deploying new techniques and more sophisticated measures of ethnicity that are more commensurate with theoretical perspectives on ethnicity. This chapter takes a step further in this direction, and proposes a conceptual framework based around the notion of ‘social distance’ that provides, we suggest, a convincing way to blend theoretically rich perspectives on ethnicity, such as those proposed by Lonsdale, with careful and serious quantitative analysis.

ISBN:9781107025998

Jaar van publicatie:2012