December 1 - 2, 2006
Université du Québec à Montréal
For the first Spoke 1 workshop of the MCRI, the goal was to analyze the diverse factors that shape the character of ethnic identities, communities, and relations. We approached ethnicity as a phenomenon with a history that represents the interaction of the local, national and global social forces producing diverse ethnic politics in different settings. These included the social and economic factors that shape the material reality of ethnic communities, including regional and class differentiation; the factors of culture and religion through which ethnic communities are identified; the impact of historical political institutions,including colonial and post-colonial states, federal and unitary states, and their policies on ethnic communities and identities, including the effects of different policies of recognition on the evolution of these identities; the effect on communities of their relations with other ethnic groups within nation-states; and, finally, the interaction between the national and international political and economic environment and the dynamics of internal ethnic politics.