1st Edition
Ethnic Politics and Conflict/Violence State of the Field and New Directions
Ethnicity is one of the most salient and enduring topics of social science, not least with regard to its potential link to political conflict/violence. Despite, or perhaps because of, the concept’s significant use, all too seldom has the field paused to consider the state of our knowledge. For example, how do we define and conceive of ethnicity within the context of political conflict? What do we really know about the causal determinants of ethnic conflict? What has been the most useful development within this literature, and why?
This volume comprises reflections from an international range of prominent political scientists all engaged in the study of ethnicity and conflict/violence. They attempt to synthesize what the field does and does not know with regard to ethnic conflict, as well as draw out the research directions for the immediate future in unique and interesting ways.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics.
1. Introduction: State of the Field of Ethnic Politics and Conflict Erika Forsberg, Jóhanna Kristín Birnir and Christian Davenport 2. The Field of Ethnic Conflict Studies: An Interplay of Theory with Reality Monica Duffy Toft 3. Disaggregating Identities to Study Ethnic Conflict John F. McCauley 4. Inequalities Between Ethnic Groups, Conflict, and Political Organizations Lars-Erik Cederman and Julian Wucherpfennig 5. Bringing Perpetrator and Victim Identities into Empirical Ethnic Conflict Research Anita R. Gohdes 6. Observations on the Study of Ethnic Conflict Ted Robert Gurr 7. Focus on the Fundamentals: Reflections on the State of Ethnic Conflict Studies Henry E. Hale 8. Above, Below and Beyond the State: New Directions in Ethnic Conflict Studies Erin K. Jenne 9. What do We Know as a Field about the Causal Determinants of Ethnic Conflict? Will H. Moore 10. New Directions in the Study of Ethnopolitics Idean Salehyan 11. ELF Must Die: Institutions, Concentration, the International Relations of Ethnic Conflict and the Quest for Better Data Stephen M. Saideman 12. Ethnic Conflict: Looking Inside Groups Sherrill Stroschein 13. Why Does Ethnicity Increase in Salience as Political Order Decays? David A. Lake 14. Ethnic Conflict: Questions and Answers Patrick James and Cyrus Mohammadian 15. Old Wine, New Bottles: Synthesis and Integration in Ethnic Conflict Research David Carment
Biography
Erika Forsberg is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden. Current research interests include gender inequality and political conflict, and the effects conflict exposure/trauma may have on individuals’ psychological health and intergroup attitudes.
Jóhanna K. Birnir is Associate Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland College Park, USA. Her work examines the role identity plays in politics including electoral politics and conflict. Her current projects examine how the interaction of ethnic and religious demographics creates incentives for mobilization and conflict, and how gender norms influence political behaviour.
Christian Davenport is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science, and Faculty Associate, at the University of Michigan, USA, as well as Global Fellow and Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, Norway. He generally works on state repression/human rights violation and the dynamic relationship between challenging as well as counter-challenging behaviour.
