A Theory of Ethnic Group Boundaries

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Abstract
Despite widespread agreement that ethnic boundaries are malleable rather than fixed, theories of ethnicity and collective action have been unable to adequately explain why individuals choose to mobilise collectively within particular boundaries rather than others. The boundaries of groups engaging in ethnic collective action are always taken for granted at some level rather than problematised. This leads to an undesirable reification of ethnic groups as actors.The theory presented in this article integrates a social psychological view of motivation with a rational choice view of action to provide a systematic way of predicting the boundary location of ethnic groups that begin to mobilise in societies undergoing modernising structural change. It first focuses on the link between cooperation and altruism in small communities. It then predicts how altruistic preferences, in conjunction with structural factors and rational behaviour, will generate boundaries for larger‐scale ethnic collective action that transcends yet incorporates such communities. The theory's predictions are then applied to explain the location of group boundaries in four very prominent cases of ethnicity ‘creation’ and collective action in this century.

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