Rethinking Ethnicity

Session Submission Type: Created Panel

Session Description

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, ethnicity has been the dominant cleavage around which politics is organized. What explains the salience of this cleavage and the conditions under which different groups become polarized? How is identity politics changing as society changes and becomes multi-ethnic/racial? To what extent are Africans allowing other identities, such as their national identity, to supplant ethnicity? And fundamentally, how can we measure these concepts? This panel rethinks ethnicity in numerous African countries and through different methodological techniques.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 53: African Politics Conference Group

Individual Presentations

• Decoding National Identity in Africa - Dominika Koter, Colgate University

• Matching Ethnic Groups in Africa - Carl Müller-Crepon, ETH Zurich; Yannick Immanuel Pengl, ETH Zurich; Nils-Christian Bormann, University of Essex

• The Political Economy of Ethnicity in Africa - Philip Roessler, College of William & Mary; Yannick Immanuel Pengl, ETH Zurich

Chair

• Matthew K Gichohi University of Bergen