TY - JOUR

T1 - Difference in Difference

T2 - Language, Geography, and Ethno-Racial Identity in Contemporary Iran

AU - Elling, Rasmus Christian

AU - Harris, Kevan

PY - 2021/3/12

Y1 - 2021/3/12

N2 - Three approaches to portraying ethno-racial and national identity for Iran are common: a discretizing approach that groups and conflates ethnicity, language and geography; a civic-territorial conception of nationalism as supra-ethnic Iranian-ness; and an ethno-nationalist approach that criticizes the former for privileging a state-centered, Persian-Shiite majority’s culture and status. Instead of arbitrating between them, we propose a sociological approach that compares different forms of ethno-racial self-identification in modern Iran. Using the 2016 Iran Social Survey, which asks open-ended questions on ethno-racial self-identification, we find wide variation in how ethnic identity is expressed. On the one hand, the findings suggest that a sizable degree of mismatch exists, where concepts of ethnic groupness are confusing or not fully recognizable to many individuals. On the other hand, we also find that multi-ethnic self-identification is common, including across the ethno-racial boundaries often portrayed as closed and mutually exclusive groups in Western discussions on Iran.

AB - Three approaches to portraying ethno-racial and national identity for Iran are common: a discretizing approach that groups and conflates ethnicity, language and geography; a civic-territorial conception of nationalism as supra-ethnic Iranian-ness; and an ethno-nationalist approach that criticizes the former for privileging a state-centered, Persian-Shiite majority’s culture and status. Instead of arbitrating between them, we propose a sociological approach that compares different forms of ethno-racial self-identification in modern Iran. Using the 2016 Iran Social Survey, which asks open-ended questions on ethno-racial self-identification, we find wide variation in how ethnic identity is expressed. On the one hand, the findings suggest that a sizable degree of mismatch exists, where concepts of ethnic groupness are confusing or not fully recognizable to many individuals. On the other hand, we also find that multi-ethnic self-identification is common, including across the ethno-racial boundaries often portrayed as closed and mutually exclusive groups in Western discussions on Iran.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Etnicitet

KW - mindretal

KW - Iran

KW - kvantitativ sociologi

KW - Sociologi

KW - Sprog

KW - Majoritet

KW - Nationalisme

U2 - 10.1080/01419870.2021.1895275

DO - 10.1080/01419870.2021.1895275

M3 - Journal article

VL - 44

SP - 2255

EP - 2281

JO - Ethnic and Racial Studies

JF - Ethnic and Racial Studies

SN - 0141-9870

IS - 12

ER -