Elementary strategies of ethnic boundary making

Abstract

This article offers a new taxonomy of how actors may change ethnic boundaries. I distinguish between five main strategies: to redraw a boundary by either expanding or limiting the domain of people included in one's own ethnic category; to modify existing boundaries by challenging the hierarchical ordering of ethnic categories, or by changing one's own position within a boundary system, or by emphasizing other, non-ethnic forms of belonging. The taxonomy claims to be exhaustive and accommodates a considerable number of historical and contemporary cases both from the developed and the developing world. It aims at overcoming the fragmentation of the literature along disciplinary and sub-disciplinary lines and prepares the ground for an agency-based comparative model of ethnic boundary making.

Cite this

Andreas Wimmer (2008). Elementary strategies of ethnic boundary making. Ethnic and Racial Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870801905612

@article{andreas2008elementary,
  title  = {Elementary strategies of ethnic boundary making},
  author = {Wimmer, Andreas},
  year   = {2008},
  journal = {Ethnic and Racial Studies},
  doi    = {10.1080/01419870801905612}
}

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