Which groups are mostly responsible for problems in your neighbourhood? The use of ethnic categories in Germany

TY - JOUR

T1 - Which groups are mostly responsible for problems in your neighbourhood?

T2 - The use of ethnic categories in Germany

AU - Schaeffer, Merlin

PY - 2013/1/1

Y1 - 2013/1/1

N2 - Why and under which conditions do people employ ethnic categories rather than others (such as age, class, gender, and so on) to conceptually organize their social environment? This article analyses an open-ended question on who is seen as responsible for neighbourhood problems taken from a recently conducted large-scale survey in Germany. By doing so, this study tries to give novel insight on native Germans' use of ethnic folk classifications and aims to identify contextual factors that might explain why people characterize problem-groups in ethnic terms. This article shows that drunkards, the elderly and especially teenagers are seen as problem-groups more frequently than any ethnic minority. Conditions of economic decline and out-group size are analysed as to whether they are associated with a higher likelihood of using ethnic categories. The findings suggest that the effects of out-group size are diminishing in their impact, whereas the effects of economic decline are accumulating in strength.

AB - Why and under which conditions do people employ ethnic categories rather than others (such as age, class, gender, and so on) to conceptually organize their social environment? This article analyses an open-ended question on who is seen as responsible for neighbourhood problems taken from a recently conducted large-scale survey in Germany. By doing so, this study tries to give novel insight on native Germans' use of ethnic folk classifications and aims to identify contextual factors that might explain why people characterize problem-groups in ethnic terms. This article shows that drunkards, the elderly and especially teenagers are seen as problem-groups more frequently than any ethnic minority. Conditions of economic decline and out-group size are analysed as to whether they are associated with a higher likelihood of using ethnic categories. The findings suggest that the effects of out-group size are diminishing in their impact, whereas the effects of economic decline are accumulating in strength.

KW - diversity

KW - Ethnic boundaries

KW - ethnic minorities

KW - ethnic relations

KW - national identity

KW - prejudice

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864205066&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/01419870.2011.644311

DO - 10.1080/01419870.2011.644311

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84864205066

SN - 0141-9870

VL - 36

SP - 156

EP - 178

JO - Ethnic and Racial Studies

JF - Ethnic and Racial Studies

IS - 1

ER -