Ethnic identities and national identities: Some examples from Malaysia

Using examples from Malaysia, this paper emphasizes the importance of relating ethnicity to the power of the state and political processes involving different ethnic groups. Ethnic group formation involves processes that make people identify as an imagined community in a nation‐state. Indeed, the processes that create ethnic and national identities are part and parcel of the same historical processes. It is also necessary to relate national identity to ethnicity, as national identity is imagined differently by different ethnic groups in a nation‐state. The paper describes Malay and Chinese ethnicity as well as the complex ethnic identification and ethnogenesis of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak.     

Neoliberal discourses and ethnonormative regime in post-recognition Peru: redefining hierarchies and identities

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the impact of ‘recognition’ of cultural and ethnic diversity in Peru. It proposes that the rise of a new global ‘ethnonormativity’ – a regime to define and administrate cultural and identity differences, to establish boundaries between those who ‘are’ ethnic and those who are not, and to set rights and duties derived from identities – has had meagre effects in Peru. While the past decades have witnessed the emergence of Latin American political actors who regard indigenousness as their basic political identity, there has been no ‘emergence of indigenous movements’ in Peru. The discourses that highlight the importance of diversity have gained terrain – unsettling, to a certain extent, the narratives of assimilation through ‘development’ and mestizaje – and the Peruvian state has officially embraced ‘recognition’, including it in its official rhetoric and creating institutions to design policies to guarantee the rights of the indigenous and Afroperuvian ‘peoples’ (itself a label part of the language of multiculturalism). The state has also crafted a definition of ‘indigenous peoples’ and introduced ethnic variables in censuses and official statistics, thus being active in the production and regulation of subjects. Some civil society actors have also incorporated ethnic labels into their rhetoric to adapt to the global turn to identity politics. Peru remains, however, a fertile terrain for neoliberal policies and discourses of a different kind. A discourse that exalts ‘emprendedurismo’ (entrepreneurship) and states that success depends entirely on personal effort has become a new common sense, obscuring the structural inequality that has historically affected indigenous and Afroperuvian people. Extractivism continues to damage the environment and the rights of indigenous people, while the expansion of agribusiness in the coastal valleys of Peru keeps people – regardless of their ‘ethnic’ self-identification – in poverty and without basic labour and social rights. The article suggests that the ambiguities of the ethnonormative regime in Peru may serve as a diversion from structural issues in a context of neoliberalism and may re-elaborate racial hierarchies, racism and the narratives of mestizaje it allegedly opposes.     

Buddhist extremism,anti-Muslim violence and civil war legacies in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

A post-civil war country may cease military activity, but the social rupture impacts political discourse and ethnic relations, and can lead to collective violence against minorities. Sri Lanka has witnessed multiple examples of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence since the civil war termination, most infamously in 2014 when ethnic riots affected large numbers of people. Buddhist monks appeared to play a prominent role. The lengthy war and ethnonationalist ideologies have produced politico-religious shifts associated with ‘Buddhist extremism’, implicated in these riots and other aggressions. This paper uses interview data to explore the question: what causal mechanisms link post-civil war and extremist ideologies, and how this can lead to ethnic rioting. Interview respondents argue that promoting a monolithic national identity in a heterogeneous country enhances divisions, which can be politically expedient. An outright war victory, militarization of society and lack of peacebuilding sustain ethnic tensions that can be mobilized for further anti-minority violence.     

Multiethnic Parentage

Abstract

Given increasing inter-ethnic contact resulting from migration and refugee movements as well as global economic and political activities, this paper explores the potential for bridging cultural, ethnic and racial divides by people who are not confined to a single ethnicity. Based on a piece of exploratory qualitative research, the paper describes the personal ethnic identity of 13 people of multi-cultural/ethnic/racial parentage, and then draws out links between their identity resolution and their social relationships. From the findings, hypotheses are formulated concerning the relationship between identity resolution and ease of bridging ethnic divides in social contexts. Implications of the findings for social work practice and the challenge of enhancing social cohesion are considered in the concluding section of the paper.     

Intercultural educational alternatives based on sustainability from Mexico: beyond school and cultural belonging

Abstract

This article proposes the articulation of intercultural education and sustainability, linking the recognition of cultural diversity to socio-environmental concerns. This implies transcending formal education and classrooms; moving towards educational modalities that could impact people of different ages, and levels of scholastic achievement, with different needs and demands. We suggest that education is a key to transform structural conditions that have perpetuated inequality, and then to the self-empowerment of indigenous peoples, but that previous models, political basis and forms have not been pertinent, nor do they respond entirely to explicit demands of indigenous peoples. Intercultural education should go beyond simply adding cultural elements to the curriculum. Learning and sharing about ways to connect knowledges and know-how from cultural, social, economic and political distant sources, and ways to visualise and propose autochthonous relevant methods to transform their regions and make these visions of social justice real, are amongst the elements that we consider central to intercultural education. In order to demonstrate this, we analyse an experience of non-formal, collaborative, intercultural education with fisherwomen and youths, making up a learning community and emphasising a dialogue of knowledge for the conservation of their territory.     

Reconsidering identity: the ethnic and political dimensions of hybridity among majority and Turkish youth in Germany and England1

Sociological research has hitherto largely focused on majority ² and minority ethnic identities or citizenship identities. However, the social connections between youth are not simply ethnic dynamics but also political dynamics involving citizenship categories. This article argues that in postmodern societies, it is important to reconsider the ways we think about youth identities. Drawing upon qualitative data from a study into the political identities of majority (German and British) youth and Turkish youth, educated in two Stuttgart and two London secondary schools, the research found that fifteen‐year‐olds had no singular identity but hybrid ethno‐national, ethno‐local and national‐European identities as a result of governmental policies, their schooling and community experience, social class positioning, ethnicity and migration history. In working‐class educational contexts, many majority and Turkish youth privileged the ethnic dimension of hybridity whereas majority and Turkish youth in the two middle‐class dominated schools emphasized the political dimension of hybridity. The article demonstrates that social class and schooling (e.g. ethos and peer cultures) have a considerable role to play in who can afford to take on the more hybridized cosmopolitan identities on offer.     

Second-generation Central Americans and the formation of an ethnoracial identity in Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

Whether Latinos in the United States are an ethnic or racial group is extensively debated. Some propose Latinos are an ethnic group on their way to becoming white, others contend Latinos are a racialised group, and an alternate perspective posits Latinos are an ethnoracial group. This study intervenes in this debate by examining the identities of second- and 1.5-generation Central Americans in Los Angeles, California. Drawing on 27 in-depth interviews, I show Central Americans have an identity repertoire, which includes national origin, panethnic, racial, and minority identities. I also capture the situations and reference groups that influence the deployment of ethnic and racial identities. These results suggest Central Americans develop an ethnoracial identity. I argue Central Americans’ ethnoracial identity emerges from agency – subjective understandings of themselves and resisting invisibility in Mexican Los Angeles – and from structure – a racialised society, institutionally-created panethnic categories, and racially-based experiences.     

Negotiating Ethnic Identity in the College Korean Language Classes

This article examines the ways in which second-generation Korean-American students form and transform their senses of ethnicity through their participation in Korean language classes at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. These classes were largely populated by second-generation Korean-Americans. Called the "New Second Generation," these Korean-American students, who have "successfully" proceeded through the American educational system, show that adaptation to the host society does not necessarily lead to assimilated American identity, and that learning Korean (a "heritage" language) does not necessarily lead to homogeneous ethnic identity formation. Although "heritage" (or "ethnic") language has often been taken up as a symbol for group maintenance, my study shows that actual interaction with the language is complexly and heterogeneously experienced among the group members, especially in relation to the ethnic identity formation process. Korean classes (as a transnational social field) contain complicated and contradictory characteristics, resulting from their complex mixture of class participants, their institutional location, and their national and transnational situation. Korean-American language learners negotiate their sense of ethnic identity by interacting with social meanings initiated from words, passages, illustrations, and texts. Furthermore, Korean-American student's language performance and cultural tastes, which are perceived and evaluated by themselves and others, differently locate these students on a continuum of "Koreanness" and "Americanness," reflecting different relationships to Korea and different senses of being Korean.     

Indigenous activism in Bangladesh: translocal spaces and shifting constellations of belonging

Taking the movement for the rights of indigenous people in Bangladesh as an example, this article elucidates how recent attempts to institutionalise the concept of indigenous people at the global level relate to local claims. These attempts are intrinsically interlinked to identity politics targeting the national political arena, and by adopting the conceptual offerings provided by the UN system as well as those from other parts of the world, activists seek to promote more inclusive approaches. Contemporary translocal indigenous activism, however, is prone to contradictions. On the one hand, identity politics rely upon old-established images of indigenous people with essentialist connotations. On the other hand, it can be observed that the activist configuration, thought in ethnic terms, becomes increasingly porous, for a variety of reasons. After providing an overview of the way indigenous activism in Bangladesh has unfolded recently, the conditions under which the boundaries of belonging to the activist movement are stretched or confined will be discussed. The final part deliberates the findings in relation to the ways in which the social order of the movement may change over time.     

From "Us" to "Them": Diasporic Linkages and Identity Politics

Global diasporas-a type of social formation mediating economic, political, and cultural affairs across borders-have been a focus of globalization researchers for some time. However, up to now, little knowledge exists on how social identification affects business participation in diaspora communities and how such participation modifies social identification. This article, based on empirical research on diasporic linkages between Taiwanese transnationals and ethnic Chinese overseas, serves to illustrate a) how globalization has enhanced the practical and economic roles of diasporas, and b) how economic practices and ethnic identification interact within diasporic communities. The author argues that ethnic membership still remains contested, despite diasporas serving as flexible forms of social organization in the mediation of capital flow.     

Contesting Formosa: Tragic Remembrance,Urban Space,and National Identity in Taipak

Throughout the world, national identities are inscribed on communities through the construction of social space. Although the identity of Taiwan-as Chinese versus Formosan-has been contested for the past fifty years, the struggles over space and memory have become increasingly visible since the lifting of martial law in 1987. This article, a product of five years of field research in Taiwan, is an attempt to read some ways in which so-called Native Taiwanese have begun to inscribe a non-Chinese identity on social space in Taipak and beyond. In particular, I focus on how struggles for control over social memory have played out in the transformation of Taipak's New Park into a memorial for the Massacre of February 28. Although it is only one social field on which the struggle for Taiwanese identity is fought, New Park has become one of the major points of contention between ethnic groups on the island.     

A Comparative Study on the Cultures of the Dungan and the Hui Peoples

The Dungan people derive from China's Hui people, and now live mainly in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Their population is over 110,000. This people has now developed a separate ethnicity outside China, yet they have close relations with the Hui people in culture, ethnic characteristics and ethnic identity. This paper aims to compare the cultures of the two peoples in terms of ethnic identity, religion and lifestyle so as to show the influence of region, political context and ethnic background on the two peoples.     

The Transformative Impact of Cultural Portals on the Ethnic Identity Development of Second-Generation Filipino-American Emerging Adults

This study considers why second-generation Filipino-Americans (SGFAs) may experience unique challenges regarding family socialization, ethnic identity formation, and a history of colonial mentality. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 SGFA emerging adults. An indigenous perspective and life story interview was used to underscore social, political, and historical contexts of participants. Despite experiencing colonial mentality, assimilation, and constrained enculturation, SGFAs displayed areas of resilience through cultural portals, or access points to their own heritage and culture, which allowed them to explore and develop their own ethnic identity in a transformative way.     

Homeless and Indigenous in Minneapolis

SUMMARY

Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in the homeless population. This paper examines the extent to which homelessness and some of its possible antecedents and consequences differ for indigenous peoples and majority whites residing in the city of Minneapolis. We conclude that being homeless and indigenous in Minneapolis is a significantly different experience for this group than it is for majority whites. The cultural context of indigenous homelessness reflects higher poverty and inconsistent patterns of employment. It also reflects higher support in family and friend relationships. Higher misuse of alcohol reflects personal disability while lower use of mental health services reflects a structural disability. Discrimination is reflected in previous childhood out-of-home placements.     

The multiplicity of Hawaiian sovereignty claims and the struggle for meaningful autonomy

Abstract

There are multiple Hawaiian political claims and entitlements. Is independence appropriate for Hawai'i? Is it appropriate for Hawaiians? These two questions are not one and the same. In the movement today, there are multiple levels of ambiguity about these two claims – the right to indigenous self-determination under US domestic law and Hawai'i's right to self-determination under international law – as evidenced in the strategic invocation of both. The persistent maintenance of the dual claim reveals a particular sort of political ambivalence having to do with the dilemmas over the exercise of sovereignty in the 21st century. This article examines two different claims – one which is specific to Hawaiians as an indigenous people subjugated by US colonialism, and the other which is not limited to the indigenous and focuses on the broader national claims to Hawai'i's independence. Within this latter arena, there are two distinct lines of political activism and legal claims – one that calls for de-colonization protocols and the other that calls for de-occupation.     

Indigenous internationalism: native rights and the UN

Abstract

Since 1982, with the creation of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the UN has taken steps toward addressing the violations of indigenous human rights around the globe that have characterized the colonization of indigenous peoples by western nations since the 15th century. This article explores the question of whether actions taken by the WGIP and other UN bodies promise to relieve this legacy; or whether the UN, as the proper overseer of international law concerning human rights today, continues that legacy in revised form, as some analysts have claimed. A brief overview of positions taken by key figures in the history of international law concerning indigenous peoples since the early 16th century provides a background against which to compare the work of the UN. My conclusion is that while the UN has in some ways sustained the inherited order of neglect of indigenous rights, it has, more importantly, created openings which make it possible for indigenous peoples to assert their claims. While this is not a story of continuous progress, it does suggest that there is reason to respect the UN's efforts in this relentlessly neglected area of human rights.     

Bridging identity divides in current rural social mobilisation

The shift from a corporatist citizenship regime to a neoliberal one has adversely affected Latin American rural communities and led to widespread social mobilisation and organisation in the countryside. The struggle of such marginalised communities has been often framed by stressing their indigenous collective identity over the previously prevalent class-based peasant identity. This article focuses on the role of identity and the negotiation of different identities in the struggle of two rural organisations in Northwest Argentina for securing land tenure and improving their standards of living. Argentinean society, in contrast to some other Latin American societies, is often imagined as ‘white,’ but in recent decades many peasant, or campesino, communities have rediscovered or reaffirmed their indigenous origin. This article therefore deconstructs rural collective identities in Argentina and analyses how class and ethnic identities are negotiated in struggles of grassroots social organisations in the countryside of this predominantly urban country.     

Planning Other Families: Negotiating Population and Identity Politics in the Peruvian Amazon

This article examines the ways in which globally driven population policies are experienced by rural, indigenous women in Amazonian communities on the periphery of formal, political power. As with other global development processes, population programs are actively resisted, accepted, and modified by the women who are their intended "targets." Through a nuanced exploration of the interface of indigenous identity with the discourse of empowerment and reproductive rights, this article traces the impact of internationally funded population and development programs on local identity politics in the Peruvian Amazon.     

Narratives of "Home" and "Homeland": The Symbolic Construction and Appropriation of the Sudeten German Heimat

Sport is an important arena for the construction, maintenance, and challenging of identities. This article aims to explore, using a figurational sociological perspective, the complex inter-relationship between sport, culture, and national identity with particular reference to rugby union in Ireland. The theoretical framework for the analysis of national identity put forward here seeks to make sense of national identity by considering a series of key "processual" social dynamics to shed light and raise questions on the dynamic double-bind between sport and national identity. A case study of rugby union in Ireland since 1945 is employed here to demonstrate how various sources of evidence can be "triangulated" to help unravel the relationship between rugby union and a specific "nation." Rugby union (as a global team sport now with a recognised and established World Cup) is arguably the most significant sporting arena whereby the imagined community of Ireland can become "real." This temporary union of two politically distinct nations through sport provides an interesting context for the researcher of national identity. This context will be explored by considering "official" historical accounts of Irish rugby, British media portraits of Irish rugby union, and the views of contemporary international Irish rugby players.     

Making Space at the Nations' Table: Mapping the transformative geographies of the international indigenous peoples' movement

Social movement scholarship has focused increasingly upon the roles played by symbolic resources and movement discourses in the process of social transformation. Current socio-political approaches, often characterized by an excessive focus on movement structure to the exclusion of larger cultural considerations, still struggle to address adequately the process of transmutation from idea to form, from symbolic shift to material change. Through an examination of the international indigenous peoples' movement, this article illustrates the ways that space constitutes a mediating dimension of the transformative processes through which the symbolic potential of movement discourses may be manifested. The alternative spatialities and new geographies generated, deployed and legitimized by this movement have provided critical locations for indigenous peoples to enact the creative work of mobilization. It is argued that incorporating the work of critical geographers into existing sociological and political perspectives will contribute to the better apprehension of these transformative processes as well as those associated with the particularly spatialized phenomena related to globalization, development, nationalism and geopolitics.