Constructivist approaches to ethnicity: A question of organization, mobilization and appropriation of ethnic identities in Kenya
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Abstract
The key argument in this study is that ethnicity, as a form of human identity, has the potential to be organized, mobilized and appropriated by individuals vis-à-vis those of other ethnic identities. As much as constructivist approaches shed some more light on the understanding of ethnicity, including highlighting fluidity or hybridity, the primordiality of ethnicity cannot be understated. In this regard, this study opines that primordiality gives the material for the constructivist arguments. Additionally, it can safely be argued that ethnicity, in and by itself, is not harmful. Nevertheless, ethnic identity is also not dormant; it is not always an event. Thus, this study foregrounds the performativity aspect of ethnic identity. Ethnic identity can be very much operational. It is in this same vein that this study considers ethnic identity along the following four touchpoints: situational; relational; instrumental; and processual. Put simply, while ethnic identity is not inherently pathological, its capacity to be activated, and, hence, to do real things cannot be overlooked. It is for this reason this study underlines individuals’ organization, mobilization and appropriation of ethnic belongingness in their relations with the outgroups in such a political ecology as that of the present-day Kenya.
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