Modern ethnic and religious conflicts worksheet answers

IAS 194 “The Political Economy of Ethnic and Religious Conflict”

Week 1 (January 18) Introduction: Ethnic, Cultural, Religious Identity

• Anna Ortiz, "Campus Diversity and Ethnic Identity Development"
• Beverly Crawford "Ethnic Identity" Encyclopedia of Global Studies, Sage Reference Publications, 2011
• Steward Harrison Oppong, "Religion and Identity," American International Journal of Contemporary Research Vol 3. No. 6; June 2013
• Jeffrey R. Seul "Ours is the Way of God," Religion, Identity, and Intergroup Conflictpp. 553-556 only
• "Identity," in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Society
• Start reading Splinterlands: Order from Amazon
  

Recommended: You may want to SKIM these articles in preparation for your assignment:

• Edouard Machery and Luc Faucher Why do we Think Racially? Culture, Evolution, and
  Cognition
  http://www.pitt.edu/~machery/papers/Race%202005%20Machery%20Faucher.pdf
• Christy D. Moran, Journal of College Student Development Kansas State University "The Public Identity Work of Evangelical Christian Students"
• Scott Thumma, "Negotiating a Religious Identity: The Case of the Gay Evangelical"

Week 2 (Jan. 25) Group Identity and National Identity: The Social Pshchological Perspective
Assignment 1: personal ethnohistory due

• Culture is Destiny: A conversation with Lee Kuan Yew pp. 109-114
• Druckman, Daniel, “Nationalism, Patriotism, and Group Loyalty: A Social Psychological Perspective,”Mershon International Studies Review, vol. 38, no. 1 (April 1994), pp. 43-68.
• Kenan Malik A search for identity draws jihadis to the horrors of Isis
• Muller J. Z. (2008). "Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism"Foreign Affairs, March/April, 18-35.

The readings for this week focus on group loyalty and the relationship between group loyalty and national loyalty. Please consider the overall question: Why do feelings of loyalty to one group generate negative or hostile feelings toward other groups?

or consider it this way: "are we as a human species somehow hardwired with xenophobic tendencies" because of:
our need for a collective or group identity, our need for identity with groups of people who are similar to us, our in-group biases and loyalty, a strong propensity to stereotype other groups, and a propensity to shut out discrepant information that might threaten our identity, etc. ?

We should also critically evaluate this literature: Here are some questions to consider as you read:

• What important factors does it leave out?
  
• Does the evidence support line of argument?
• Does membership in a group really lead people to favor that group and see others as less worthy in comparison?
• Do the arguments about the origins of group identity also apply to national identity?
• There is also an underlying question about whether we are hardwired to seek freedom, as western ideology claims.
  Wouldn't our search for freedom and focus on individualism conflict with our need for group identity and loyalty?
  
• Lee Kwan Yu criticizes western society with its freedom that undermines group loyalty. Druckman might agree with him. Is he right?
• Is he saying that his culture is superior to Western culture?
• Does the imperialism of Western culture threaten to weaken other cultures?
• Does Fareed Zakaria believe that Western culture is superior?
• Is the brief Malik article a convincing support for Druckman's argument and a convincing critique of Western individualism?
• Finally, does Jerry Miller's account of ethnonationalism support the arguments of social psychology about group loyalty, in-group bias, etc.? He makes a different causal argument, about economics, history, and psychology (but in the end, he talks about "propensities of the human spirit") , but would his argument really explain Nazi genocide of Jews and other "out groups?
• he seems to be saying that every ethnonational group should have its own homeland. What does this mean for ethnic/religious/communal/cultural conflict?

Week 3 (Feb. 1) Group Identity, Exclusion, and conflict: The Primordial Perspective

• Kurzban and Leary 2001. “Stigmatization and Exclusion” http://instruct.uwo.ca/psychology/371g/Kurzban2001.pdf
  
• Gamson, William A. "Hiroshima, the Holocaust, and the Politics of Exclusion."American Sociological Review Vol. 60:No. 1., February 1, 1995. Read only pp. 1-11

The readings for this week suggest that the forces of globalization will NOT prevail—some even say that they SHOULD not prevail. Even if the nation-state would disappear, they say that humans “naturally divide into groups, whether those groups be “civilizations,” “ethnic and racial groups,” or “religious” groups. Those groups, like the nation state will be exclusive—that is, will exclude other groups, and stigmatize them

Last week we began by making a flow chart about the steps in a social-psychological argument about why identity groups come into conflict. Druckman argued that it all begins with our need for belonging, our need for a group, rather than just an individual identity, and an in-group bias and in-group loyalty which leads to group cohesion. That, however, shuts out information about other groups, leading us to create stereotypical images of our own and other groups.

The readings this week focus on how we stigmatize members of "out groups" and how we exclude them; there are different forms of exclusion, some of which lead to violence.
1. Kurzban an Leary make a "primordial" argument that starts with a need for evolutionary adaptation in order to survive. Please create a flow chart that traces the steps in their argument.
2. Their argument differs from Druckman's argument in a major way and shows how group identity can more directly lead to conflict. What is the basic difference between them? What is your critique of their argument?
3. When you read Gamson's argument, please focus on the first part, just up to p. 11 ending before "The Dilemmas of Identity Politics" Gamson is making a constructivist rather than a primordial or evolutionary argument. He is talking about HOW stigmatization and exclusion can lead to conflict, not why. We will talk about the difference between these two types of arguments. What do you think that the main difference is?
4. According to Gamson, what are the conditions necessary for genocide?
5. In what ways are direct and indirect exclusion radically different?
6. Huntington is also offering an explanation for cultural (which he calls civilizational) conflict. He wrote the article over 20 years ago. Does it ring true today? what is your critique of his argument?
7. Please outline the steps of his argument in a flow chart.
8. What is your critique of his argument? If you think he is right, why? If you think he is wrong, why?

Week 4 (Feb. 8) The Political Economy of Ethnic and Religious Conflict: A Constructivist Perspective

Assignment 2: Research Question Due (1-2 pages)

"Is Ethnic Conflict Inevitable?" Responses to Jerry Muller's "Us and Them" Foreign Affairs, 2008

Rogers Brubaker: Ethnicity without groups. European Journal of Sociology (2002), 43:
163‐177 (177-185 is a case study of Hungarians and Romanians in Transylvania for those interested)

Crawford B. (2007). Globalization and Cultural Conflict: An Institutional Approach. In H. Anheier and Y. R. Isar (Eds.), The Cultures and Globalization Series: Conflicts and Tensions, (pp. 31-50). Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.