ABSTRACT

In his 2006 book, Fear of Small Numbers, Arjun Appadurai analyzed the aspects of globalization that have led to violent forms of ethno-national identity. The ‘small numbers’ to which he referred were minorities within nation-states, groups of ‘migrants’ who are the outward sign of the invisible processes of integration at ever greater scales. These groups generate fear, he suggested, because they can reveal that any attempt by a majority group to claim that their own identity is the national identity is generally a lie. In this account fear is the precursor to violence.