Occasional Papers are supplementary materials produced by EDUMIGROM consortium members and are meant to enrich EDUMIGROM research by offering in-depth discussions of project-relevant contextual or theoretical issues.
This paper seeks to add to the output already produced on ethnic relations in the UK (Law et al. 2008) and on comparative ethnic relations (Law et al. 2009) for the EDUMIGROM project. The foundational understanding of ethnicity elaborated by Max Weber provides a starting point for examining contemporary debates and evidence on ethnicity with particular regard to the UK in this paper. Weber describes ethnic groups as having a belief in common descent arising from one or a combination of the following: collective memories of colonisation and migration, collective customs, physical similarities. Also, ethnic groups are marked out by a range of dimensions of ethnicity, including common language, the ritual regulation of life and shared religious beliefs. In this paper, we firstly examine some of the drivers and triggers of ethnic conflict. Secondly, to ground these arguments, we look closely at the operation of ethnicity in the UK with a particular focus on recent developments in official data collection on ethnicity and new data produced by the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
Issues of Ethnicity as Contextualised in Contemporary Britain (Download)
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