Political institutions are central to understanding racial and ethnic conflict

Evidence

During the past two decades one of the most contested and thorny problems in scholarship about race and ethnic relations has been the question of how political processes and identities are shaped and constructed through the meanings attributed to racial and ethnic identities. This is partly the result of the growing politicization of questions about race and ethnicity in various parts of the globe, a trend that has been particularly noticeable in Europe, North America, and parts of Africa. It is also linked to an increasing awareness by researchers working in a variety of disciplines that the role of political institutions is central to any rounded analysis of forms of racial and ethnic conflict (Alex-Assensoh and Hanks, 2000). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2139

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on institutional analysis of racial inequality, echoing the theme running through the rest of this reader.