Law and Society: Ethnicity and Social integration Through Norm Contestation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12700/jceeas.2025.5.3.393Keywords:
Ethnification; ethnic conflict; norm contestation; de-ethnification; multiple governance; multiple integrationAbstract
that contemporary communities around the globe are facing. However, while ethnicity has been weaponized to serve as a basis for political mobilization or counter-mobilization, neither ethnic difference nor ethnicity in itself is the cause of tensions or violence as they have been portrayed to be. Ethnic-related violence is the consequence of politically driven naturalization and reification of ethnicity, the institutionalization of ethnic divisions, the ethnification and racialization of social/group relations, and the ethnicization of territories, cultures, and societies. Therefore, departing from the naturalists’ tendency of group relation dichotomization where ethnicity and race are perceived as distinct, pre-given, instinctual, tangible, bounded, static, and ancestrally linked singularity, this article argues that they should be conceptualized in relational, intersectional, processual, dynamic and multidimensional terms where “multiple diversity governance” and multi-level social integration is possible.
References
Banting, K. (2022). “Multiculturalism Policy in Canada: Conflicted and Resilient,” In Lindquist, E. et al., (ed). Policy Success in Canada: Cases, Lessons, Challenges. Oxford University Press. 183-205.
Berger, L. and Luckmann, T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality. A treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York, NY: Doubleday. 31-49.
Berry, John W. (1997). Immigration, Acculturation, and Adaptation. Applied Psychology: International Review, 46 (1): 5-34.
Charmarkeh, Lagacé and Grandena, F. (2012). Cultural Perceptions of Aging: The Perspective of Somali Canadians in Ottawa’, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, (27): 409-424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-012-9180-3 .
Constitution of the regional state of Benishangul/Gumuz. http://www.ethcriminalawnetwork.com/node/148
Department of Justice, Government of Canada (2021). Where our legal system comes from. Government of Canada (2021). Apr., 18. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/just/03.html
Dewing, M. (2013). Parliamentary Information and Research Services, Social and Legal Affairs Division. Library of Parliament, Canada, Publication No, 2009-20-E. https://studylib.net/doc/25284961/dewing-multiculturalism-2009-20-e
Egly, AH. and Wood, W. (2012). Social Role Theory. Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology (458-476). SAGE Publications Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249222.n49
Eidheim H. (1969). “When ethnic identity is a social stigma.” In Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference, ed. F Earth, (39-57). Boston: Little Brown .
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes, Human Relations 7 (2): 117-140. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001872675400700202
Fleras, A. (2017). Unequal Relations: A Critical Introduction to Race, Ethnic, and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada. Pearson Canada Inc.
https://www.pearsoncanada.ca/media/highered-showcase/multi-product-showcase/fleras-%20%20%20ch04.pdf
Fleras, A. (2012). Case Studies, Insights, and Debates Unequal Relations: An Introduction to
Race, Ethnic, and Aboriginal Dynamics in Canada. Pearson Canada Inc.
https://pearsoned.ca/highered/divisions/text/fleras/case_online_fler_FINAL.pdf
Geertz, Clifford (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, Inc, Publishers, New York.
Gordon, Milton (1964). Assimilation in American Life. The Role of race, religion, and National Origins. New York, NY, Oxford University Press.
Habtu, A. (2003). Ethnic Federalism in Ethiopia: Background, Present Conditions and Future Prospects. International Conference on African Development Archives
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/africancenter_icad_archive/57
Hansen, Randall (2014). Assimilation by stealth: Why Canada’s multicultural policy is really a repackaged integration policy. The multiculturalism question: Debating identity in 21st century Canada (73-88).
Huntington, S. (1993). The clash of civilizations?’ Foreign Affairs, 72 (3): 22-49.
Ismail, M. (2023). Ethiopian nation-building is haunted by its troubled history. Ethiopia Insight, Jan, 23. https://www.ethiopia-insight.com/2023/01/22/ethiopian-nation-building-is-haunted-by-its-troubled-history/
Kenny, Mary Ellen (200). The integration experience of Somali refugee youth in Ottawa, Canada, ‘Failure is not an option for us’, Diss. Carleton University.
Kuran, T. (1998). Ethnic Norms And Their Transformation Through Reputational Cascades. The Journal of Legal Studies, 27 (S2): 623-659. https://doi.org/10.1086/468038
Mann, M. (2012). The sources of social power: the rise of classes and nation-states, 1760-1914 (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.
Marko, J. (ed.) (2019). “Law and Sociology: the constructivist and interpretative turn,” In Human and Minority Rights Protection by Multiple Diversity Governance: History, Law, Ideology and Politics in European Perspective (138-177). Taylor and Francis Publishing Group.
Marko, J. (1998). “Citizenship beyond the national state? The transnational citizenship of the European Union,” In M. La Torre (ed.), European Citizenship: An Institutional Challenge. Kluwer Law International (369-385).
Melesse, K. (2021). Ethnic federalism: a theory threatening to kill Ethiopia. Ethiopia Insight, June, 30.
https://www.ethiopia-insight.com/2021/06/30/ethnic-federalism-a-theory-threatening-to-kill-ethiopia/
Monroe, K. R., Hankin, J., & Vechten, R. B. V. (2000). The psychological foundations of identity politics, Annual Review of Political Science, 3 (1): 419-447.
https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.419
Montalvo, José, G., and Reynal-Querol, M. (2005). Ethnic Polarization, Potential Conflict, and Civil Wars, American Economic Review, 95(3): 796-816. DOI: 10.1257/0002828054201468
Mooten, N. (2021). Racism, Discrimination and Migrant Workers in Canada: Evidence from the Literature. Policy Research, Research and Evaluation Branch, Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/documents/pdf/english/corporate/reports- statistics/research/racism/r8-2020-racism-eng.pdf
Murphy, Raymond (1988). Social closure: The theory of monopolization and exclusion. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Mylonas, H. (2013). “Assimilation and its Alternatives: Caveats in the Study of Nation-building Policies,” In Erica Chenoweth, and Adria Lawrence (eds), Rethinking Violence: States and Non-State Actors in Conflict (84-116). Cambridge, MA; online edn, MIT Press Scholarship Online.
Oommen, T. K. (2008). “Nation building and diversity,” In Watts, R. L., & Chattopadhyay, R. (Eds.), Building and accommodating diversities (21-36). Viva Press.
Pausewang, S. (2005). The two faces of Amhara identity. Scrinium, 1 (1): 273-286. Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen.
Plante, C. (2020). How to Calculate the Costs of Poverty in Canada: Comment on the Nathan Laurie Approach and Recommended Improvements. Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan.
Statistics Canada (2021). Disaggregated trends in poverty from the 2021 Census of Population. Catalogue no. 98-200-X, issue 2021009.
Statistics Canada (2006). Ethnic origin (232), Sex (3) and single and multiple responses (3) for population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations.
Tajfel, H. (ed.) (1978). Differentiation between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. London: Academic Press.
Tocqueville, A. d., Bevan, G. E., & Kramnick, I. (2003). Democracy in America: and Two essays on America. Penguin, London.
Tully, J. (1995). Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in the Age of Diversity. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, ed. and trans. G. Ross and C. Wittich. Berkeley University of California Press.
Wimmer, A., (2008). The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory, American Journal of Sociology (AJS), 113 (4): 970-1022. https://doi.org/25145782.
Wiener, A. (2020). “The Concept of Contestation of Norms - An Interview”, In Reder, Michael et al. (eds.), Yearbook on Practical Philosophy in a Global Perspective. YPPGP-JPPGP) (4th ed), Munich, Karl Alber Publishing (1-8).
Yang, P. (2000). Ethnic Studies: Issues and Approaches. State University of New York Press, New York.
Young, C., (2003). “Explaining the conflict potential of ethnicity,” In J. Darby and R. Mac Ginty (eds.), Contemporary peacemaking conflict, violence and peace processes (9-18). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Bahlbi Malk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
