| Description |
1 online resource (x, 305 pages) |
| Series |
SUNY series in national identities |
|
SUNY series in national identities.
|
| Contents |
Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: The ethnography of democracy and difference -- Part I. Diversity and equality in liberal debate ; 2. Diversity as American cultural category ; 3. The hypervisible and the masked: Some thoughts on the mutual embeddedness of "race" and "class" in the United States now ; 4. Democracy and cultural differences in the Spanish Constitution of 1978 ; 5. Disorderly differences: Recognition, accomodation, and American law -- Part II. The making of official discourses of identity ; 6. American ethnogenesis and the 1990 census ; 7. Difference from the people's point of view ; 8. Porous borders: Discourses of difference in congressional hearings on immigration ; 9. To be Basque and to live in Basque country: The inequalities of difference ; 10. Acceptable difference: The cultural evolution of the model ethnic American citizen -- Part III. Official discourses and professional practice ; 11. The role of folklore and popular culture in the construction of difference in Spain ; 12. Linguistic Constructions of difference and history of the U.S. law school classroom ; 13. From ethnography to clinical practice in the construction of the contempoary state -- References -- About the authors -- Index |
| Summary |
These ethnographic essays by scholars in anthropology, law, political science, folklore, public administration, medicine, and linguistics show contemporary connections between liberal democracy and ethnography. Each perspective explores a modern democratic site--courts, classrooms, legislatures, the media, academic professions, and bureaucratic routines. Together, they expose a contradiction--that official constructions of identity treat "differences" as both natural characteristics of individuals and the collective basis of interest groups. This contradiction hampers liberal states' efforts to acknowledge and accommodate the cultural diversity of citizens. They also show that official categories do not monopolize the available terms of understanding and identification, given the richness and flexibility of people's self-identifications outside official spheres. This recognition implies an ethnographic project at the heart of democratic change. The book develops two national case studies, the United States and Spain. Both countries have been invoked as models of multiculturalism, but their constitutional discourse and politics take very different approaches to issues of identity. Similarly, ethnographic disciplines have been involved in the officialization of difference in both countries, in different ways. Taken together, these differences and their common roots in the twinned histories of modern liberal democracy and the social sciences, provide ethnographic, reflexive, and comparative themes as well as broader theoretical and practical implications |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-285) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Multiculturalism -- United States
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Multiculturalism -- Spain
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Democracy -- United States -- History -- 20th century
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Democracy -- Spain -- History -- 20th century
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Ethnology -- United States.
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Ethnology -- Spain.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
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Democracy
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Ethnic relations
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Ethnology
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Multiculturalism
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Multikulturelle Gesellschaft
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Aufsatzsammlung
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Plurale samenleving.
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Democratie.
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Culturele identiteit.
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| SUBJECT |
United States -- Ethnic relations.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140043
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Spain -- Ethnic relations
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| Subject |
Spain
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United States
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USA
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Spanien
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| Genre/Form |
History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Greenhouse, Carol J., 1950-
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Kheshti, Roshanak
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| ISBN |
0585092354 |
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9780585092355 |
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