Publication

The article discusses the concept of ethnicity. The author argues that the extreme version of constructivism that is currently used to analyze ethnicity, is badly suited. According to him, influential authors like Paul Collier have succumbed to two main mistakes in their use of the concept of ethnicity. Firstly, they incorrectly assume that groups can 'invent' themselves when it is economically beneficial to do so. Secondly, they mistakenly assume that the fluidity of ethnicity allows people to shift their allegiances whenever it suits them. He instead proposes to use a 'common language' definition of ethnicity in political economical research on ethnicity.