Symbolic ethnicity: the future of ethnic groups and cultures in America *

Gans, Herbert J.

doi:10.4324/9781351171489-1

Cited by 101 publications

(150 citation statements)

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“…One of the classic examples here is the nonwhite racial status of Irish immigrants at the time of arrival in the early 1900s, which gave way to a white racial identity and status over time (e.g., Hirschman 2005;Hout and Goldstein 1994;Ignatiev 1995). Where European ethnic identity remains, its only relevance might be in the form of nostalgic family practices (e.g., habits, traditions, celebrations) or ethnic symbols (Gans 1979(Gans , 2014; but see Sollors 2014).…”

Section: Ethnic Heterogeneity and Community Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These festivals provide opportunities for individuals to (re)connect with their ethnic identities and traditions, no matter how many generations they are removed from their immigrant ancestors or how accurately their ethnic identity maps onto their actual ancestral heritage (e.g., Leith and Sim 2016;Waters 1990). And while these events could be described as nostalgic ethnic symbols, there is evidence that they are more meaningful than Gans (1979Gans ( , 2014 alleges (Leith and Sim 2016).…”

Section: Ethnic Heterogeneity and Community Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Waters (1990) describes how her ethnically identified respondents associate family practices that surround food, holidays, weddings, funerals, and so on with their ethnicity and ethnic heritage. This demonstrates that individuals continue to place symbolic importance on their ethnic identity (Alba 1990;Gans 1979;Jaspal and Cinnirella 2012;Ray 2001;Waters 1990), even though there are few larger societal implications of white ethnicity (where it matters little, if at all). This is because ethnicity shapes personality and identity not only on the level of consciousness but at deeper levels as well (e.g., Alba 1990;Baylor 2009;Jaspal and Cinnirella 2012;Novak 1996;Ray 2001Ray , 2005.…”

Section: Ethnic Heterogeneity and Community Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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White Ethnic Diversity in Small Town Iowa: A Multilevel Analysis of Community Attachment

Flagg

Painter

2018

Rural Sociology

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Community attachment is the feeling of being connected to community life. Within the community attachment literature, two classic approaches frame scholars’ understanding of this important dimension of community life: the linear development and systemic models. Our empirical models emphasize different factors for community attachment, including population size, density, and heterogeneity for the linear development model and age, length of residence, and social status for the systemic model. Surprisingly, heterogeneity has been omitted from analyses of the linear development model throughout the literature since its introduction, a shortcoming our study addresses. Though heterogeneity can be conceptualized in a number of ways, a large—and growing—body of literature focuses on the effects of race and ethnicity for communities. Here, we focus on a particular type of ethnic heterogeneity—European ancestry—and reincorporate this essential dimension of communities back into the linear development model of community attachment. Using data from the 2004 wave of the Iowa Community Survey and multilevel modeling techniques, we explore how white ethnic diversity matters for community life. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our study, including potential avenues for future research focusing on other ethnicities that are often subsumed under broader racial and panethnic labels.

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Section: Ethnic Heterogeneity and Community Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ethnic Heterogeneity and Community Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ethnic Heterogeneity and Community Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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White Ethnic Diversity in Small Town Iowa: A Multilevel Analysis of Community Attachment

Flagg

Painter

2018

Rural Sociology

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“…The role of ethnicity is twofold -instrumental and expressive -and this is also linked to temporal dimensions. First, the instrumental function, that is regulating everyday life (Gans 1979), occurs mostly on a daily basis and there is no need to express it explicitly. Ethnic culture can be simultaneously practised through language, art, music, dress, religion, norms, beliefs, symbols, myths and customs (Nagel 1994;Vihalemm 1999).…”

Section: Ethnicity and Holidaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ethnic culture can be simultaneously practised through language, art, music, dress, religion, norms, beliefs, symbols, myths and customs (Nagel 1994;Vihalemm 1999). Second, the expressive function appears over a longer time-scale (Gans 1979) when the sense of belonging to a certain ethnic group must be reinforced. Holidays can be considered instruments for producing national, organizational or group awareness (Fox 2006(Fox , 2014, which aim at shaping public memory and promoting national unity and identity (Spillman 1997;Uzelac 2010;Zhu 2012).…”

Section: Ethnicity and Holidaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic Segregation During Public and National Holidays: A Study Using Mobile Phone Data

Mooses

Silm

Ahas

2016

Geografiska Annaler Series B

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This paper contains an analysis of ethnic differences in activity locations during public and national holidays. Holidays relate to identity, and the celebration of holidays can be a very important part of acculturation processes and are therefore relevant to ethnic integration policies. We study the out‐of‐home nonemployment activity locations of 12,500 respondents in Estonia, using mobile phone positioning data. The results show that during holidays, ethnic segregation, measured using an index of dissimilarity, is significantly higher than it is on regular days, especially outside the capital city. The type of holiday, such as whether it is a national or international holiday, has a particular effect on people's spatial behaviour. On Estonian public holidays, Estonians are more likely to leave Tallinn than Russian speakers. There are 77 per cent more Estonians and 33 per cent more Russian speakers outside the capital than on non‐holidays. The paper depicts different temporal layers of segregation, which also indicates different integration potential in leisure spaces under various time frames.

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Addressing Contemporary Racism: The Common Ingroup Identity Model

Gaertner¹,

Dovidio²

The Nebraska Symposium on Motivation

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In the preceding chapter in this volume, we described our research on the dynamics of an unintentional, very subtle, yet pernicious form of racism, that is, aversive racism. In the current chapter, we describe our attempts to examine a strategy intended to motivate people to reduce this form of prejudice: the common ingroup identity model.When we described our findings on aversive racism formally, in papers and presentations, and informally, a common question arose, "What can we do about subtle biases, particularly when we do not know for sure whether we have them?" Like a virus that has mutated, racism may have evolved into different forms that are more difficult not only to recognize but also to combat. Because of its pervasiveness, subtlety, and complexity, the traditional techniques for eliminating bias that emphasized the immorality of prejudice and illegality of discrimination are not effective for combating aversive racism. Aversive racists recognize that prejudice is bad, but they do not recognize that they are prejudiced.One basic argument we have made in our research on aversive racism is that the negative feelings that develop toward other groups may be rooted, in part, in fundamental, normal psychological processes. One such process, identified in the classic work of Tajfel, Allport, and others, is the categorization of people into ingroups and outgroups, "we's" and "they's." People respond systematically more favorably to others whom they perceive to belong to their group than to different groups. Thus, if bias is linked to fundamental, normal psychological processes, such as social categorization, then attempts to ameliorate bias should be directed not at eliminating these processes entirely, which are functional in many ways, but rather at redirecting the forces of ingroup bias to produce more harmonious intergroup relations. By shifting the basis of categorization from race to an alternative dimension, shared by Blacks and Whites who may be interacting, we can potentially alter who is a "we" and who is a "they," undermining a potentially contributing force to aversive racism.As these ideas were developing, we also began to consider the possibility that the discrimination we were observing in our studies of aversive racism may have 111 C. Willis-Esqueda (ed.

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Symbolic ethnicity: the future of ethnic groups and cultures in America *

Cited by 101 publications

References 0 publications

White Ethnic Diversity in Small Town Iowa: A Multilevel Analysis of Community Attachment

White Ethnic Diversity in Small Town Iowa: A Multilevel Analysis of Community Attachment

Ethnic Segregation During Public and National Holidays: A Study Using Mobile Phone Data

Addressing Contemporary Racism: The Common Ingroup Identity Model

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