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A sociological look at the evolution of recent scholarship on ethnic conflicts

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Abstract

It is commonly held that there was increased scholarly interest in ethnic conflicts following the end of the Cold War, though what this greater interest has meant in terms of the evolution of this subfield in subsequent decades has rarely been studied. To fill this gap, this article looks at all articles (n = 246) on the causes of ethnic conflicts, out of a total of 20,105 articles published in 30 key journals between 1990 and 2012. Adopting a sociological stance, it argues that the subfield expanded over the period. However, ethnic conflict literature appears to have been at key points largely driven by external factors. There is also indication that duels as opposed to dialogue were the modus operandi for this period. Overall, the broad notion of expansion needs to be nuanced in light of some concerning trends behind the subfield’s sociological evolution.

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Acknowledgments

The author thanks Jean-Christophe Boucher, Christian Desrosiers, Philippe Lagassé, Geranda Notten, Steve Saideman, Nasser Ary Tanimoune, Srdjan Vucetic and Christoph Zuercher for insights and comments. She also thanks Caroline Roy and Di Chen for help with data collection and processing, as well as three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. The usual disclaimers apply.

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  1. School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, 120 University Street, Social Sciences Building, Room FSS 8030, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada

    Marie-Eve Desrosiers

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Correspondence to Marie-Eve Desrosiers.

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Desrosiers, ME. A sociological look at the evolution of recent scholarship on ethnic conflicts. J Int Relat Dev 21, 580–607 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-016-0077-6

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