Ethnic Style

In recent years, ethnic ways of speaking by young people with migrant background have become an important research object in sociolinguistics; work on these ways of speaking has been prospering in many European countries. This work is continued in the present volume, with the aim of bringing together various research designs which explore the phenomenon from different perspectives: correlational methodology of sociolinguistic research, conversation analytical and interactional linguistic methodology, and an ethnographic perspective on language use and the construction of social identities and social relations. The aim of the volume is to explore the scope of these different methodologies and to provide a basis for the discussion and evaluation of the theories of language variation associated with them. All papers focus on the description of the linguistic characteristics that constitute the non-standard structures of ethnic styles of speaking, and look into their various functions in discourse.

This is the first book to introduce readers to the crux of ethnic fashion. Covering all aspects, it addresses the significance of sustainability (including culture) and ethnic fashion in the apparel industry. It also highlights concepts and case studies pertaining to ethnic fashion.

The collective inquiries in this volume address ethnicity in ancient Africa as social fact and political artifact along numerous dimensions. Is ethnicity a useful analytic? What can archaeology say about the kinds of deeper time questions which scholars have asked of identities in Africa? Eleven authors engage with contemporary anthropological, historical and archaeological perspectives to examine how ideas of self-understanding, belonging, and difference in Africa were made and unmade. They examine how these intersect with other salient domains of social experience: states, landscapes, discourses, memory, technology, politics, and power. The various chapters cover broad geographic and temporal ground, following an arc across Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and East Africa, spanning from prehistory to the colonial period.

The controversial work of Amy Chua argues that, as rapid modernization, industrialization, technological change and globalization bring about fundamental changes in national, ethnic and class identities, especially in developing countries, there is a danger that the laissez-faire capitalist system will cause serious racial conflagration, especially in societies where there is ethnic minority market dominance, combined with ethno-nationalist-type politicians who mobilize support from ethnic majority communities by drawing attention to inequalities in wealth distribution. This controversial work goes on to argue for an authoritarian political system, with curbs against the corporate expansion of enterprises owned by ethnic minorities, until parity in equity ownership among all communities is achieved. This book tests the assumptions behind these arguments, discussing ethnic communities, identity, economy, society and state, and the links between them, in a range of countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, and diaspora communities of Asian peoples in the West. It demonstrates that identity transformation occurs as generations of minority communities succeed each other, that old discourses of fixed origins which are assumed to bind ethnic communities into cohesive wholes do not apply, that there are very extensive inter-linkages in the daily activities of people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, that affirmative action-type policies along racial lines can undermine overall societal cohesion, and that there is no case for limiting democracy until economic equity is achieved. This is a rich, important book, with huge implications for economic development and for states throughout the world as multi-ethnic societies world-wide become more extensive and more complicated.

This book brings together internationally known scholars from a wide range of disciplines and theoretical traditions, all of whom have made significant contributions to the field of race and ethnic relations. As well as identifying important and persistent points of controversy, the collection reveals a complementary and multifaceted approach to theorisation. The theories represented include contributions from the perspective of sociology. These range from the established perspectives of Marx and Weber through to the more recent interventions of rational choice theory, symbolic interactionism and identity structure analysis.

Second and third generation South and Southeast Asian minorities in Hong Kong, being marginalized from mainstream social and political affairs, have developed an ambivalent sense of belonging to their host society. Unlike their forefathers who first settled in Hong Kong under British colonial rule, these younger generations have spent their formative years in the territory. As such, they have increasingly engaged in the public and political realms of society, partly in response to the territory’s rapid political changes. Leung discusses and analyses the complex and diverse engagement of migrant and minority youths in Hong Kong - and their struggle for recognition, while desiring to 'be-long' to a place they call home. Some are joining the calls for democratic changes in the territory. In particular, she argues that much of this struggle can be seen in minorities’ involvement in creative sectors of society. While it will be of especial interest to scholars with an interest in Hong Kong, this book presents a compelling case study for anyone interested in the dynamics of migrant and minority engagement in the creative sector as a strategy for engagement.

Domestic Architecture, Ethnicity, and Complementarity in the South-Central Andes is a comprehensive and challenging look at the burgeoning field of Andean domestic architecture. Aldenderfer and fourteen contributors use domestic architecture to explore two major topics in the prehistory of the south-central Andes: the development of different forms of complementary relationships between highland and lowland peoples and the definition of the ethnic affiliations of these peoples.