Ethnic Boundary Making

Download Ethnic Boundary Making PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199927391
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ethnic Boundary Making by : Andreas Wimmer

Download or read book Ethnic Boundary Making written by Andreas Wimmer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-02-07 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing a new comparative theory of ethnicity, Andreas Wimmer shows why ethnicity matters in certain societies and contexts but not in others, and why it is sometimes associated with inequality and exclusion, with political and public debate, with closely-held identities, while in other cases ethnicity does not structure the allocation of resources, invites little political passion, and represent secondary aspects of individual identity.

Ethnic Boundary Making

Download Ethnic Boundary Making PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199927383
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ethnic Boundary Making by : Andreas Wimmer

Download or read book Ethnic Boundary Making written by Andreas Wimmer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-18 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does ethnicity matter in certain societies and contexts but not in others? Drawing on the boundary-making perspective first championed by anthropologist Fredrick Barth, Andreas Wimmer introduces a comparative analytic of ethnic group formation. He analyzes how and why ethnic boundaries are sometimes associated with inequality and exclusion, with political salience and public debate, with enduring loyalty and thick identities, while in other cases ethnicity and race do not structure the allocation of resources, invite little political passion, and represent only secondary aspects of individual identity. Wimmer argues that three key mechanisms influence the dynamics and consequences of ethnic boundary-making: institutional incentives , the distribution of power between individuals, and the reach of pre-existing social networks. Cautioning against seeing ethnicity wherever one looks, Wimmer argues for disentangling ethnic and non-ethnic group formation processes and proposes a set of research designs, analytical principles, and strategies of interpretation appropriate for the task. Several qualitative and quantitative studies then apply this agenda : on how local residents in immigrant neighborhoods draw symbolic boundaries against each other, on the ethnic and racial composition of friendship networks, and how ethnic closure influences cultural values. By overcoming essentialist approaches to ethnicity while avoiding the pitfalls of excessive constructivism, Ethnic Boundary Making offers a new perspective on a topic of vital interest to sociologists, anthropologists, and ethnic studies scholars.

Ethnic Boundary-Making at the Margins of Conflict in The Philippines

Download Ethnic Boundary-Making at the Margins of Conflict in The Philippines PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 9811525250
Total Pages : 159 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (115 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ethnic Boundary-Making at the Margins of Conflict in The Philippines by : Anabelle Ragsag

Download or read book Ethnic Boundary-Making at the Margins of Conflict in The Philippines written by Anabelle Ragsag and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-03 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book makes a significant interdisciplinary contribution to existing scholarship on ethnicity, conflict, nation-making, colonial history and religious minorities in the Philippines, which has been confronted with innumerable issues relating to their ethnic and religious minority populations. Using Sarangani Bay as a research site, the book zones in on the lives of the Muslim Sinamas and the Christianized indigenous B'laans as they navigate the effects of the ongoing turmoil in the Bangsamoro region in Muslim Mindanao—a multi-faceted conflict involving numerous armed groups, as well as clans, criminal gangs and political elites. This work considers the factors affecting the Muslim Moro people, who have long been struggling for their right to self-determination. The conflict in the Moro areas has evolved over the past five decades from an ethnonationalist struggle between an aggrieved minority and a thorny issue for the central government: a highly fragmented conflict with multiple overlapping causes of violence. The book provides a framework for understanding the ethnic separatism in the case of the southern part of the country, framed by the concept of ethnic boundaries. Providing an excellent blend of theory and empirical evidence, the author confronts how ethno-religious divisions adversely impact the quality of life and unpacks how these divisions challenge multiculturalist policies. Weaving together multiple branches of the social sciences, this book is of interest to policymakers, researchers and students interested in international relations and political science, Asian studies, ethnic studies, Philippines’ history, sociology and anthropology.

Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics

Download Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479868280
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics by : Zeki Sarigil

Download or read book Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics written by Zeki Sarigil and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kurdish Movement in Turkey’s growing alliance with Islam One of the fault lines of Turkish politics traditionally has been the divide between religious and secular movements. However, as Zeki Sarigil argues, the secular Kurdish movement in Turkey has increasingly become aligned with Islam. As a result, Islam has become part of the movement’s political discourse, strategies and actions. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics traces the evolving relations between the leftist, secular Kurdish movement and Islam, from an apathetic and/or antagonistic attitude in the 1970s and 1980s to an increasingly Islam-friendly approach in the 1990s to an attitude of accommodation and the rise of Kurdish-Islamic synthesis in the early 2000s. Based on 104 interviews in several provinces in Turkey (primarily Ankara, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, and Tunceli) between 2011 and 2015 as well as ethnographic data, public opinion surveys and statements from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdish leaders, Sarigil shows how the secular Kurdish movement increasingly has been endorsing Islam and Islamic actors. The reasons for this Islamic opening are global, national, and local; Sarigil demonstrates that a group of strategic and ideological factors have encouraged and/or forced Kurdish leaders to redraw symbolic and social boundaries of the movement. Namely, with the end of the Cold War support for Marxist ideas collapsed, creating increasingly more favorable responses towards religion. In addition, the movement’s need to expand its social basis and popularity; electoral politics; and legitimacy struggles against rival political actors were other major factors, which triggered the Kurdish movement’s boundary expansion (i.e. its Islamic opening). The study also shows that the Kurdish boundary making was not without any tension or contestation. The boundary expansion by Kurdish ethnopolitical elites triggered both internal and external boundary contestations. The movement’s embrace of Islam on a more widespread level has major ramifications for politics in Turkey and in the region. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics has important insight into the PKK, modern Turkish and Islamic societies and highlights the increasing role of Islam in global politics.

Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries

Download Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317600002
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries by : Jennifer Jackson

Download or read book Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries written by Jennifer Jackson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nationalism and ethnicity have become, across time and space, a force in the construction of boundaries. This book analyses geographical and physical borders and symbolic, political and socio-economic boundaries, and how they impact upon nationalism and ethnic identity. Geographic and other tangible borders are critical components in the making and unmaking of boundaries. However, symbolic or intangible boundaries along national, ethnic, political or socio-economic criteria are equally significant. Organised into three sections on theory, national and transnational case studies, this book both introduces existing approaches to the study of boundaries and illustrates how it is possible to apply renewed boundary approaches to better understand nationalism and ethnicity in contemporary contexts. Expert contributors in the field present detailed case studies on the UK, Israel, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, and draw upon further examples from more than a dozen countries to provide a critical evaluation of the use of borders, boundaries and boundary-making in the study of nationalism and ethnicity. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of International Politics, Nationalism, Racial and Ethnic Politics, Ethnic Identity and Sociology.

Myanmar’s Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes

Download Myanmar’s Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN 13 : 9814695769
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (146 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Myanmar’s Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes by : Oh Su-Ann

Download or read book Myanmar’s Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes written by Oh Su-Ann and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2016-08-19 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume adds to the literature on Myanmar and its borders by drawing attention to the significance of geography, history, politics and society in the construction of the border regions and the country. First, it alerts us to the fact that the border regions are situated in the mountainous and maritime domains of the country, highlighting the commonalities that arise from shared geography. Second, the book foregrounds socio-spatio practices — economic, intimate, spiritual, virtual — of border and boundary-making in their local context. This demonstrates how state-defined notions of territory, borders and identity are enacted or challenged. Third, despite sharing common features, Myanmar’s borderscapes also possess unique configurations of ethnic, political and economic attributes, producing social formations and figured worlds that are more cohesive or militant in some border areas than in others. Understanding and comparing these social practices and their corresponding life-worlds allows us to re-examine the connections from the borderlands back to the hinterland and to consider the value of border and boundary studies in problematizing and conceptualizing recent changes in Myanmar. “This ambitious project combines sophisticated theorization of boundary-making as a form of social practice and empirical studies of Myanmar’s heterogeneous borderlands, both land and sea. Seeing the country from its edges opens up a provocative and altogether novel vision of the contestations joining diverse peripheries and centre. This volume brings together the leading scholars of the country in a collection that is a must-have for anyone interested in contemporary Myanmar, border studies, and Southeast Asia.” -- Itty Abraham, Head, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS) “This is the first book to attempt to bring together such a diverse range of Myanmar’s land and maritime border regions for comparison. In doing so, it highlights the diversity of the country’s demographic, social, economic and political make-up when viewed from the margins rather than the centre. It reveals how these border regions help to constitute the nation and how they shape what modern Myanmar is today — they also give strong indicators of what it might become. This is an essential read for anyone in the social sciences interested in borderlands, as well as those requiring a broader understanding of the challenges facing the contemporary Myanmar government as it attempts to usher in social and political cohesion following decades of conflict.” -- Mandy Sadan, Reader in the History of South East Asia, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS)

Public Policy and Ethnicity

Download Public Policy and Ethnicity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230625304
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (36 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Public Policy and Ethnicity by : Roger Openshaw

Download or read book Public Policy and Ethnicity written by Roger Openshaw and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-10-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Has ethnicity become institutionalized as a political category? Drawing on international studies, including New Zealand, the book shows that this process of public policymaking creates artificial divisions that can become permanent and detrimental as well as being at odds with the social fluidity of modern societies. Preface by Jonathan Friedman.

Making Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia

Download Making Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004408029
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Making Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia by : Simon Schlegel

Download or read book Making Ethnicity in Southern Bessarabia written by Simon Schlegel and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-08-26 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invesigation into the manifold uses of ethnicity through the history of southern Bessarabia, a multiethnic region that has been ruled by competing empires and nations, all of which used ethnicity to administer the region’s diverse inhabitants.

Redefining Race

Download Redefining Race PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 1610448456
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (14 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Redefining Race by : Dina G. Okamoto

Download or read book Redefining Race written by Dina G. Okamoto and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2014-09-25 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2012, the Pew Research Center issued a report that named Asian Americans as the “highest-income, best-educated, and fastest-growing racial group in the United States.” Despite this seemingly optimistic conclusion, over thirty Asian American advocacy groups challenged the findings. As many pointed out, the term “Asian American” itself is complicated. It currently denotes a wide range of ethnicities, national origins, and languages, and encompasses a number of significant economic and social disparities. In Redefining Race, sociologist Dina G. Okamoto traces the complex evolution of this racial designation to show how the use of “Asian American” as a panethnic label and identity has been a deliberate social achievement negotiated by members of this group themselves, rather than an organic and inevitable process. Drawing on original research and a series of interviews, Okamoto investigates how different Asian ethnic groups in the U.S. were able to create a collective identity in the wake of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Okamoto argues that a variety of broad social forces created the conditions for this developing panethnic identity. Racial segregation, for example, shaped how Asian immigrants of different national origins were distributed in similar occupations and industries. This segregation of Asians within local labor markets produced a shared experience of racial discrimination, which encouraged Asian ethnic groups to develop shared interests and identities. By constructing a panethnic label and identity, ethnic group members took part in creating their own collective histories, and in the process challenged and redefined current notions of race. The emergence of a panethnic racial identity also depended, somewhat paradoxically, on different groups organizing along distinct ethnic lines in order to gain recognition and rights from the larger society. According to Okamoto, these ethnic organizations provided the foundation necessary to build solidarity within different Asian-origin communities. Leaders and community members who created inclusive narratives and advocated policies that benefited groups beyond their own were then able to move these discrete ethnic organizations toward a panethnic model. For example, a number of ethnic-specific organizations in San Francisco expanded their services and programs to include other ethnic group members after their original constituencies dwindled. A Laotian organization included refugees from different parts of Asia, a Japanese organization began to advocate for South Asian populations, and a Chinese organization opened its doors to Filipinos and Vietnamese. As Okamoto argues, the process of building ties between ethnic communities while also recognizing ethnic diversity is the hallmark of panethnicity. Redefining Race is a groundbreaking analysis of the processes through which group boundaries are drawn and contested. In mapping the genesis of a panethnic Asian American identity, Okamoto illustrates the ways in which concepts of race continue to shape how ethnic and immigrant groups view themselves and organize for representation in the public arena.

Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics

Download Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199893179
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (998 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics by : Kanchan Chandra

Download or read book Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics written by Kanchan Chandra and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking the possibility of change in ethnic identity into account, this book shows and dismantles the theoretical logics linking ethnic diversity to negative outcomes and processes such as democratic destabilisation, clientelism, riots and state collapse. Even more importantly, it changes the questions we can ask about the relationship between ethnicity, politics and economics.

Waves of War

Download Waves of War PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107025559
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Waves of War by : Andreas Wimmer

Download or read book Waves of War written by Andreas Wimmer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new perspective on how the nation-state emerged and proliferated across the globe, accompanied by a wave of wars. Andreas Wimmer explores these historical developments using social science techniques of analysis and datasets that cover the entire modern world.

Cultivating Differences

Download Cultivating Differences PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226468136
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (681 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Cultivating Differences by : Michèle Lamont

Download or read book Cultivating Differences written by Michèle Lamont and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1992-01-15 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are boundaries created between groups in society? And what do these boundaries have to do with social inequality? In this pioneering collection of original essays, a group of leading scholars helps set the agenda for the sociology of culture by exploring the factors that push us to segregate and integrate and the institutional arrangements that shape classification systems. Each examines the power of culture to shape our everyday lives as clearly as does economics, and studies the dimensions along which boundaries are frequently drawn. The essays cover four topic areas: the institutionalization of cultural categories, from morality to popular culture; the exclusionary effects of high culture, from musical tastes to the role of art museums; the role of ethnicity and gender in shaping symbolic boundaries; and the role of democracy in creating inclusion and exclusion. The contributors are Jeffrey Alexander, Nicola Beisel, Randall Collins, Diana Crane, Paul DiMaggio, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Joseph Gusfield, John R. Hall, David Halle, Richard A. Peterson, Albert Simkus, Alan Wolfe, and Vera Zolberg.

Asian American Religions

Download Asian American Religions PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 081471630X
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (147 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Asian American Religions by : Tony Carnes

Download or read book Asian American Religions written by Tony Carnes and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2004-05 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Redraws old definitions of what it means to be religious and Asian American.

Ethnic Groups and Boundaries

Download Ethnic Groups and Boundaries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Waveland Press
ISBN 13 : 1478607955
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (786 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ethnic Groups and Boundaries by : Fredrik Barth

Download or read book Ethnic Groups and Boundaries written by Fredrik Barth and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 1998-03-11 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When originally published in Norway, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries marked the transition to a new era of ethnic studies. Today this much-cited classic is regarded as the seminal volume from which stems much current anthropological thinking about ethnicity. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries opens with Barths invaluable thirty-page essay that introduces students to important theoretical issues in the analysis of ethnic groups. Following is a collection of seven essaysthe results of a symposium involving a small group of Scandinavian social anthropologistsintended to illustrate the application of Barths analytical viewpoints to different sides of the problems of polyethnic organization in various ethnographic areas, including Norway, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mexico, Afghanistan, and Laos.

Sociology in America

Download Sociology in America PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226090965
Total Pages : 929 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Sociology in America by : Craig Calhoun

Download or read book Sociology in America written by Craig Calhoun and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 929 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though the word “sociology” was coined in Europe, the field of sociology grew most dramatically in America. Despite that disproportionate influence, American sociology has never been the subject of an extended historical examination. To remedy that situation—and to celebrate the centennial of the American Sociological Association—Craig Calhoun assembled a team of leading sociologists to produce Sociology in America. Rather than a story of great sociologists or departments, Sociology in America is a true history of an often disparate field—and a deeply considered look at the ways sociology developed intellectually and institutionally. It explores the growth of American sociology as it addressed changes and challenges throughout the twentieth century, covering topics ranging from the discipline’s intellectual roots to understandings (and misunderstandings) of race and gender to the impact of the Depression and the 1960s. Sociology in America will stand as the definitive treatment of the contribution of twentieth-century American sociology and will be required reading for all sociologists. Contributors: Andrew Abbott, Daniel Breslau, Craig Calhoun, Charles Camic, Miguel A. Centeno, Patricia Hill Collins, Marjorie L. DeVault, Myra Marx Ferree, Neil Gross, Lorine A. Hughes, Michael D. Kennedy, Shamus Khan, Barbara Laslett, Patricia Lengermann, Doug McAdam, Shauna A. Morimoto, Aldon Morris, Gillian Niebrugge, Alton Phillips, James F. Short Jr., Alan Sica, James T. Sparrow, George Steinmetz, Stephen Turner, Jonathan VanAntwerpen, Immanuel Wallerstein, Pamela Barnhouse Walters, Howard Winant

Nation Building

Download Nation Building PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691177384
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Nation Building by : Andreas Wimmer

Download or read book Nation Building written by Andreas Wimmer and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new and comprehensive look at the reasons behind successful or failed nation building Nation Building presents bold new answers to an age-old question. Why is national integration achieved in some diverse countries, while others are destabilized by political inequality between ethnic groups, contentious politics, or even separatism and ethnic war? Traversing centuries and continents from early nineteenth-century Europe and Asia to Africa from the turn of the twenty-first century to today, Andreas Wimmer delves into the slow-moving forces that encourage political alliances to stretch across ethnic divides and build national unity. Using datasets that cover the entire world and three pairs of case studies, Wimmer’s theory of nation building focuses on slow-moving, generational processes: the spread of civil society organizations, linguistic assimilation, and the states’ capacity to provide public goods. Wimmer contrasts Switzerland and Belgium to demonstrate how the early development of voluntary organizations enhanced nation building; he examines Botswana and Somalia to illustrate how providing public goods can bring diverse political constituencies together; and he shows that the differences between China and Russia indicate how a shared linguistic space may help build political alliances across ethnic boundaries. Wimmer then reveals, based on the statistical analysis of large-scale datasets, that these mechanisms are at work around the world and explain nation building better than competing arguments such as democratic governance or colonial legacies. He also shows that when political alliances crosscut ethnic divides and when most ethnic communities are represented at the highest levels of government, the general populace will identify with the nation and its symbols, further deepening national political integration. Offering a long-term historical perspective and global outlook, Nation Building sheds important new light on the challenges of political integration in diverse countries.

Blurred Boundaries

Download Blurred Boundaries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 042986132X
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (298 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Blurred Boundaries by : Rainer Bauböck

Download or read book Blurred Boundaries written by Rainer Bauböck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1999, this volume examines new forms of cultural diversity which result from migration and globalization. Historically, most liberal democracies have developed on the basis of national cultures – either a single one, or a dominant one, or a federation of several ones. However, political and economic developments have upset traditional patterns and have blurred established boundaries. Ongoing immigration from diverse origins has inserted new ethnic minorities into formerly homogenous populations. Democratic liberties and rights provided opportunities for old and new marginalized minorities to resist assimilation and to assert identities. The resulting pattern of multiculturalism is different from earlier ones. Often cultural boundaries are neither clearly defined nor do they simply dissolve by assimilation into a dominant group – they have become fuzzy and a constant source of real or imagined hostility and anxiety. A proliferation of mixed identities goes together with stronger claims for cultural rights and escalating hostilities between ethnic minorities and national majorities. In many countries multiculturalism is today perceived as a challenge rather than as an enrichment. The book focuses on the question how institution and policies of liberal democracies can cope with these trends. The book addresses two tasks: 1) To compare different national contexts and types of ethnic groups (immigrant and indigenous, linguistic and religious minorities) and to discuss how policies of multicultural integration have to be adapted in order to cope with such differences. 2) To evaluate the impact of common rends of globalization which link societies and encourage convergence between national models of multicultural integration.