Article in Sociology · August 000 doi: 10. 1177/S0038038500000304 citations 37 reads 5,200 author

Conclusion

The significance attributed in different societies to a belief in shared ethnic

origin is related to its potential for organising collective action in pursuit of shared

goals. Two particular conclusions follow from this: firstly, that the significance of

shared ethnic origin varies infinitely; secondly, that it has to be considered in parallel

with other potential bases for collective origin, including neighbourliness, and

shared national origin, race, religion, and political interest. In local communities

there are usually many such bases, making the relations between members multi-

dimensional and enabling the different relationships to balance each other. When

individuals are mobilised by appeal to shared ethnic origin this may appear to result

in a distinctive kind of conflict but the underlying processes are common to many

kinds of mobilisation.

The potential for mobilisation can be transformed into effective collective action

by a political entrepreneur who commands the rhetoric that, in the right circum-

stances, inspires others to think further than their short-term individual interest, or

who can create a situation in which they feel that they have no viable alternative but

to conform to the expectation of group solidarity. The mobiliser’s first strategy is, by

rhetoric, to reduce the multidimensionality of relations by making one dimension

appear all-important. The most extreme strategy is the commission of atrocities in

order to polarise relations. An approach which conceptualises these issues in terms of

collective action bypasses debates about the nature of nations, ethnic groups,

minorities, and so on, by treating groups as aggregations of individuals which are

constantly forming and reforming as circumstances change. It seeks explanations of

changes in the value individuals place upon ethnic association by reference to

changes in their relations with significant others, including both interpersonal

relations with mobilisers and collective relations with competing groups. These

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relations interact with ethnic sentiment in a cause-and-effect relationship, hence the

appearance of an engine that powers conflict. The origins of ethnic alignment lie in

this interaction, not in any single power source. Those who make up a generation

inherit a heterogeneous set of preferences from their forebears, modify them, and

pass them on to the following generation.

Just as conflicts sometimes escalate, so they can decline. The parties can com-

promise and any preference for ethnic association can weaken relative to individual

goal-seeking, feelings of personal obligation, or other kinds of alignment. Each

conflict is unique, so any resolution is likely to depend upon particular institutions

and the circumstances of the time. The scope for socio-scientific generalisation

about so-called peace processes is therefore limited.

ack n ow l e d g e m e n t

Professor F. G. Bailey kindly commented upon an earlier draft of this article.

n ote

1. For a more sophisticated analysis, inspired by the theory of games, of the relations between

elites and followers in conflicts such as those in Bosnia, see Melander (1999:213–23). The

question of German participation in the slaughter of Jews during the Nazi period raises

much wider issues. Reviewing competing explanations, Goldhagen (1996:410) concluded

that ‘Essentially, the Jews were seen as a biologically programmed people of great power,

dedicated to destroying Germany, who by constitution and deed forfeited the protection of

traditional morality’.

referen ce s

Bailey, F. G. 1996. The Civility of Indifference: On Domesticating Ethnicity. Ithaca: Cornell University

Press.

Bailey, F. G. 1998. The Need for Enemies: A Bestiary of Political Forms. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Banton, M. and Mansor, M. N. 1992.‘The Study of Ethnic Alignment: A New Technique and an

Application in Malaysia’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 15:599–613.

Brogan, P. 1989. World Conflicts: Why and Where They Are Happening. London: Bloomsbury.

Covell, M. 1993.‘Belgium: The Variability of Ethnic Relations’, pp. 275–95, in J. McGarry and

B. O’Leary (eds.), The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation: Case Studies of Protracted Ethnic