Introduction

This chapter introduces some of the new themes and approaches to ethnic relations which have emerged in later years, indicating how not only empirical concerns but also theoretical developments in the social sciences always evolve as a dialogue between the academic professions and the outside world. The relationship between ethnicity and culture is sometimes discussed in the context of social constructivism. Fredrik Barth had been interested in ethnic relations since his fieldwork in Swat, which took place in the mid-1950s. In Western Europe, research on ethnicity has mainly focused on either indigenous minorities or immigrant minorities, and ethnicity has chiefly been conceptualised as the relationship between the minority on the one hand, and the majority and the state on the other hand. Indigenous politics, mainly represented by Eidheim in Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, virtually exploded worldwide in the 1970s.