Majority-minority Relationship Research Articles

Awareness Context and Social Recognition: Reconsidering a Case Study of “Dialogue” between Different Ethnic Persons in Japan

This study incorporates Honneth’s social recognition into awareness context theory by reconsidering a case study of the dialogue between Zainichi Korean and Japanese people in Japan. It revitalizes the theoretical significance of Strauss’ symbolic interactionism in terms of its focus on power dynamics and conflicts between the majority and minorities that differ in the cultural or ethnic background in modern global society. Incorporating critical theory into symbolic interactionism is a method of enhancing its contemporary significance. However, the discrepancy between them remains unresolved. There are some previous studies on Zainichi Koreans’ dialogue and the public sphere. Still, this case uniquely fits the aim of this study. As a result, it proposes both a substantive theory as a social justice inquiry in Japanese society and a modified formal theory of awareness context by adopting the theoretical perspective coined in this study and using abductive reasoning in the reconsideration. The substantive theory proposes a joint action characterized by unending mutual recognition and pragmatist dissent as a pragmatist public sphere between different ethnic persons in Japan. It is a method of grassroots communication that realizes liberal democracy as the form of modern society in Japan, liberating people from the Japanese communitarian mindset of Wa. The formal theory proposes new awareness contexts focusing on information and social recognition, which applies to the majority-minority relationship that differs in cultural or ethnic backgrounds from a theoretical perspective by focusing on conflicts between traditional cultural communities and modern society. Additionally, as an implication of this study, a pluralistic character of symbolic interactionism united by common frameworks of formal theories is proposed.

Religious Pluralism and Harmony among Buddhist - Muslim Communities Living in East Lampung, Indonesia

Village communities are usually homogeneous, so the presence of other groups often leads to rejection. In addition, the nature of the majority-minority relationship within the prevailing religious and ethnic background has the potential to cause conflict. However, the people of Sumber Sari village, East Lampung have successfully eluded such a conflict. This paper strives to show the interaction between religious communities that are positively intertwined. It uses a case study approach with a purposive sample. The unit of analysis remains the community of Sumber Sari village, East Lampung, consisting of Buddhists, Muslims, religious leaders, and community leaders. The archives of the Office of the Ministry of Religion of East Lampung Regency are also a source of secondary data in this study. Objectively, harmony in Buddhist and Muslim societies occurs in three forms. Firstly, internal harmony exists in the Buddhist society between assemblies, manifested in joint worship. Secondly, the harmony between the Buddhists and the Muslims is manifested in tahlilan/syukuran, kenduren suroan, and other activities. Thirdly, the relationship with the government can be maintained properly because of the belief that development can work if there is harmony in the community. This study also has certain limitations since it involves only two of the six official religions in Indonesia, namely Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. However, a picture of harmony between the two religions is depicted in this study.

Together but Separate: Relationships and Boundaries between North and South Koreans in Multiethnic Britain

The United Kingdom hosts the largest North Korean immigrant community in Europe, and the majority have settled in New Malden, London’s Koreatown. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this study examines the relationships North Korean immigrants have established with their South Korean counterparts in the course of secondary migration from South Korea to the UK, focusing on how the shift from a majority–minority relationship between the two communities in ethnic-hierarchical South Korea to a minority–minority relationship in multi-ethnic Britain has influenced the North Koreans’ perceptions of and boundaries with South Koreans. Faced with language barriers and many other disadvantages in the host society, North Korean immigrants in the UK make pragmatic use of commonalities they share with their South Korean counterparts as well as of previous experiences and skills learned in South Korea. However, instead of fully assimilating into the South Korean immigrant community, they freely acknowledge the differences in the post-partition era, resulting in an enduring invisible boundary between the two groups. In doing so, they perceive that the two groups are in a relatively equal position as respective minorities vis-à-vis broader society, and the sense of ethnic stratification and hierarchy between them is largely dissolved. This study thus offers insights into how ethnic relations are contingent on social contexts and how migrants as transnational agents use and navigate their experiences, resources, and relationships to position themselves in the host society and shape their everyday life practices in a complex migration context.

Collective Innocence and Collective Guilt in the Persecution of Gypsies: From Deviant-Active Minority to Victimized Minority

Gypsies have been a persecuted minority for more than five centuries. Our paper examines how exposing Spaniard participants to information according to which they personally, or their ingroup collectively, discriminate against the Gypsy minority influences (i) their attitudes toward the Gypsy minority (e.g., experience of collective guilt or support for affirmative action and other forms of compensation) and (ii) the collective (but not individual) accusation of discrimination against the Gypsy minority transforms attributions of the causes of their marginalization. We discuss the societal ethos that the new victimized minorities have introduced as regards majority-minority relationships.

The psychology behind malevolent rumors: A study of the relationship between ethnic group identities and the spread of rumors about majority Danes and ethnic minorities

With the advent of social media, fake news, conspiracy theories, and misinformation have emerged as major societal concerns. But why do citizens disseminate untrustworthy information online? I examine this question by testing how identification with societal groups affects citizens’ uptake of malevolent rumors about competing groups. I test the theoretical expectations in a survey study administered to large groups of majority Danes and ethnic minorities living in Denmark. The results show that participants identifying as Danes or immigrants are much more likely to believe and share malevolent rumors about the other group, and that these associations are mostly driven by outgroup anger rather than ingroup love. The article deepens our understanding of majority-minority relationships in a digital world as well as the challenges that must be overcome in order to stop the spread of online misinformation.

Using Social Media to Infer Gender Composition of Commuter Populations

In order for a municipality to effectively service and engage its constituency, it must understand the composition of the communities within it. Up to the present, such demographic estimates for target populations have been obtained largely from census data or expensive, time-intensive surveys. In this paper, we use Twitter microblog content to estimate the gender makeup of commuting populations using different modes of transportation (cars, public transportation, and bikes) in Toronto, Canada. We apply a demographic inference algorithm to 33,215 public Twitter accounts that follow one of three popular transportation-related Twitter-based news feeds (one for traffic, one for public transportation updates, and one for bicycling). Recent census data provides ground truth against which to compare the estimates we derive from Twitter. We find that, for all three communities (car drivers, public transport users, and bicyclists), the estimates obtained from Twitter reflect the majority-minority relationships between genders reported in census data. This provides preliminary, but compelling evidence that Twitter may be a platform that can go beyond simply signaling the presence of physical communities to actually measure their compositions.

Http://habibiaislamicus.com/index.php/hirj/article/view/176

The particular nature of partition of India left the different religious communities with strained relations. The bloody backdrop made an imperative on the newly independent nation to sort out the majority-minority relationships amidst communities. The nation started with a centralizing tendency. The two nation theory based on religious identities shaped the post-independence politics to a great extent. Minority communities were given social and cultural rights but nonpolitical rights. As a part of cultural rights, these communities were left on their own with regard to marriage, divorce, inheritance etc. The nascent nation faced the dilemma of balancing the rights of different groups. As a result mere equality before law was substantiated by the right of members of minority communities to have the liberty to lead a life in accordance with their cultural practices. Islam has been focusing on chastity of the society and for this it describes rules and manners to be followed. On the other hand, West particularly in its modern capitalistic perspective gives its followers to lead a hedonistic life having no clutch on individual desires. West uses feministic sound louder and louder to portray itself the champion of Women rights but it has been observed that West through this campaign also tries to get its objectives against Islam. In this paper an attempt has been taken to highlighting how the West influences Muslim personal law in the subcontinent. At the same time, in this paper, an effort has also been made to resolve some repeated objections regarding the status of Women eruditely.

Sikhism’s Identity and Challenges in Malaysia: A Literature Review

The question of Sikhism’s identity and its challenges in the context of a multi-racial society in Malaysia is worthy of discussion because it involves the majority-minority relationship between ethnicity and religion. In addition, the Sikh community in Malaysia is generally local born or a generation that was born here. They identify themselves with Malaysia as their birth place and not Punjab in India, which is their place of origin. As an ethnic minority, the Sikh community has its own identity, which is different from the identity of other ethnic groups. This study discussed the question of the Sikh identity and its challenges in Malaysia by using the content analysis method based on previous studies dating from 1999 to 2015. This study found that the Sikh identity was something that was difficult to determine as it was presumed to a personal issue and did not warrant further discussion. Hence, discussions on this issue did not garner the necessary cooperation from the Sikhs themselves. Therefore, this study discussed several issues such as the concept of identity, religion as an identity, identity forming process, the history of Sikhism’s identity formation and challenges faced by the contemporary Sikh community in Malaysia.

The Uncomfortable Balance between a Minority and a People: The Global/Local Disconnect

The legitimacy of secessionist movements has emerged as an important debate, while the protection of minorities within a democracy has become merely of peripheral interest to international law. My project suggests that the advent of universalized (minority) rights re-conceptualized the majority-minority relationship and its balance, reducing the possibilities of political processes to balance the relationship. What was construed as a redress for dichotomous relationships between the oppressor and the oppressed through (the right to) self-determination, became a discourse between minority (identity) rights and a democratic entitlement, post-colonially. These norms universalized a demand to rethink minority protection, no longer from the perspective of advantaged and disadvantaged; rather, to introduce perspectives of individuals polarized around a personal characteristic in their identity thus establishing/reinforcing the inferiority of their identity within the hierarchy.

Between Harmony and Discrimination: Negotiating Religious Identities within Majority-Minority Relationships in Bali and Lombok, Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin & David D. Harnish, eds

Ce gros volume collectif, qui reunit les contributions de 15 specialistes (dont 5 Indonesiens), est le fruit d’un symposium intitule Negotiating Interreligious Relationships in Bali and Lombok, organise a l’Universite Georg-August de Gottingen en juillet 2011 sous la direction de Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin et Meike Rieger. L’appel a communications invitait les participants pressentis a etudier la maniere dont le processus de democratisation et de decentralisation mis en oeuvre par la Reformasi...

Social distance, ethnicity, and religion in Northwest China: a survey of inter- and intra-group attitudes among Han, Hui, and Tibetan students

Building on existing research concerned with social distance in multi-ethnic states, this study of college students in Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region provides a picture of social attitudes, intra-group attachment, and inter-group social distance along ethnic and religious lines in Northwest China. The study measures inter-ethnic group fissures in Chinese society as measured in social distance between three ethnic groups: Han, Hui, and Tibetan. Comparative survey methods are used to examine inter- and intra-group relations by mapping dimensions of social distance among 382 university students. Our results indicate only very subtle differences that suggest a closer majority–minority relationship than the previous literature indicates, especially between the Hui and Han. The findings show some clustering and segregating patterns along ethnic lines, specifically when accounting for degrees of trust and tolerance and levels of ethnic and religious attachment. The Hui and Han in Ningxia exhibit closer inter-group relations in comparison to wider measurements of social distance between the Tibetan and Han in Gansu. Where the survey data revealed clustering among ethnic groups, the analysis shows that religious, geographical, and economic differences fail to account for the attitudinal differences between ethnic groups.

America in the Psyche of Bangla Authors: Opening of the Space by Tagore

The essay, divided into five sections, explores how the Cultural Space called ‘America’ (and ‘Americanism’) are reflected in the works of a far-away literary-cultural community called Bangla (or Bengali) in South Asia, and how this inter-relationship was strengthened by Rabindranath Tagore. It begins with the post-Tagore post-WWII literary scene where America occurs as a backdrop and then touches upon Tagore’s contemporaries who referred to America. But it focuses on how Tagore, in his polemical writing, views the role of America in the international arena, or how he conceptualises Indo-American relations while commenting on American Society and its beliefs and practices — especially how it handles linguistic plurality, majority-minority relationships, and less-privileged groups. In particular, it discusses the concepts such as Individuality, Plurality, Diversity, Liberty and Civilization — all relevant for foreign policy initiatives then as well as now, and how America is viewed as a land of promise and opportunity.

Christian identity of secular Europe

The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005. The newspaper explained that this publication was a contribution to debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship. In response, Danish Muslim organizations held public protests and spread knowledge of Jyllands-Postens publication. As the controversy grew, some or all of the cartoons were reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries, which led to violent protests, particularly in the Muslim world. Critics of the cartoons describe them as islamophobic and argue that they are blasphemous, intended to humiliate a marginalized Danish minority, and a manifestation of ignorance about the history of western imperialism, from colonialism to the current conflicts in the Middle East. Supporters of the cartoons claim they illustrate an important issue in an age of Islamic extremist terrorism and that their publication is a legitimate exercise of the right of free speech. They also note that similar cartoons about other religions are frequently printed, arguing that the followers of Islam were not targeted in a discriminatory way. The dispute has again pointed out to the relevance of religion and religious differences in the contemporary world. Again, several questions presented themselves as significant: citizen freedom, values and the rights to exercise them, secularism, tolerance, multiculturalism majority-minority relationships and so on. The resolution to these issues appears as of the outmost importance, considering the existing tendencies of united Europe to even more firmly establish cultural, economic, and political associations, in order to launch a one, joined European identity with vanishing national, ethnic and religious differences. Therefore, the question becomes: what could serve as a foundation for such a united identity? The reactions to the idea of "united Europe" that provoked rising nationalism xenophobia, and resistance towards immigrants in general show that a construction of the identity of this kind represents a very complicated undertaking, with still blurred ending. This paper, thus, discusses basics misunderstandings between "Euro-enthusiastic" and the ones who worry about their own national identity, and points out to the existence of some intrashared values that could serve as a foundation for a future, united European identity.

The Question of Majority-Minority Relationship in a Nation State: The Indonesian Case

The Question of Majority-Minority Relationship in a Nation State: The Indonesian Case

The integration of minorities in the security forces in Israel: the case of Muslim Arab citizens in the Galilee

Although many changes have occurred and accumulated significantly in Arab society in Israel and in the majority-minority relationship, the great class gap between Arabs and Jewish has been retained. This gap depends on the division of the resources in Israeli society. Inequality in this division and in the social relations between Jewish and Arabs continues, although there are indications that it is lessening. It is difficult to speak about co-existence and peace between Jews and Arabs, since today the Arabs of Israel are integrated in Israeli society primarily by negative and involuntary forces, such as economic dependency, political heresy, and social ecological isolation (Smooha, 2011: 13). The present research focuses only on the Muslim Arab population integrated into the security forces in Israel.

Ambrose Caliver, Education of Teachers for Improving Majority-Minority Relationships

Ambrose Caliver, <i>Education of Teachers for Improving Majority-Minority Relationships</i>