Research programme

Identity, Ethnicity and Political Community

This research cluster is a part of the Institute of Political Science’s research programme ‘Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviour’. Its members study phenomena such as migration, immigration, citizenship, integration, ethnic parties, minority and caste-based politics, borders and migration, multiculturalism, federalism, corruption and patronage.

Contact: Maria Spirova

Issues of identity and diversity play a substantial role in many countries, including both democratic and authoritarian systems. Throughout the world, political communities struggle to give diversity a meaningful expression in politics and policy-making. Ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural differences challenge the political process with the potential tensions and conflicts that they can bring. Why and how do identity-based conflicts arise, and when do these turn to bloodshed? What are the political mechanisms for accommodating diversity? How should we understand phenomena such as nationalism, federalism, multiculturalism and separatism? What role do identity politics play in today’s democratic systems? How are policies of ethno-national accommodation impacted by new security paradigms such as counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation?

Members of this research cluster focus on such questions and approach them from a variety of epistemological and methodological perspectives to study phenomena such as migration, immigration, citizenship, integration, ethnic parties, minority and caste-based politics, borders and migration, multiculturalism, federalism, corruption and patronage. Members of this cluster are also active in the East and Central European Studies Centre (CEES), the Centre for Political Philosophy (CPP), and the Leiden University Centre for International Relations (LUCIR).

Members

Other research clusters within the ‘Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviour’ programme: