• DOI:10.1146/ANNUREV.SO.20.080194.000405
• Corpus ID: 55842681

The Sociology of Ethnic Conflicts: Comparative International Perspectives

@article{Williams1994TheSO,
  title={The Sociology of Ethnic Conflicts: Comparative International Perspectives},
  author={Robin Murphy Williams},
  journal={Review of Sociology},
  year={1994},
  volume={20},
  pages={49-79}
}

• R. Williams
• Published 1994
• Sociology, Political Science
• Review of Sociology

Oppositions and deadly conflicts among ethnic collectivities are important around the word. Ethnies (our term for ethnic groups) also strongly affect interstate relations. Both interethnic and ethnic-state conflicts tend to be severe, protracted, and intractable. At the extremes, the stakes are total: survival versus genocide Competition and rivalry for individualized economic and political goods are important, but the most intense conflicts are to be expected when the stakes are collective goods, including categorical claims to prestige and political authority. States are major actors in creating, accentuating, or diminishing ethnic identities. States are both arenas of rivalry and conflict and resources for ethnic mobilization and counter-mobilization. Because both ethnies and states are diverse, careful specification is required for fruitful analysis. The same dictum applies for the diverse types of oppositions and of conflicts. Ethnic conflicts arise from complex combinations of ethnic strength, class...