Industrialization and Assimilation: Understanding Ethnic Change in the Modern World

Industrialization and Assimilation examines the process of ethnic identity change in a broad historical context. Green explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labour and removing people from the 'idiocy of rural life', industrialization makes societies more ethnically homogenous. More specifically, the author argues that industrialization lowers the relative value of rural land, leading people to identify less with narrow rural identities in favour of broader identities that can aid them in navigating the formal urban economy. Using large-scale datasets that span the globe as well as detailed case studies ranging from mid-twentieth-century Turkey to contemporary Botswana, Somalia and Uganda, as well as evidence from Native Americans in the United States and the Māori in New Zealand, Industrialization and Assimilation provides a new framework to understand the origins of modern ethnic identities.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. Understanding ethnicity and industrialization; 3. Industrialization and assimilation in historical perspective; 4. Cross-national evidence; 5. Industrialization and assimilation in mid-20th century Turkey; 6. Cases of non-industrialization in Africa: Somalia and Uganda; 7. 'Cattle without legs': structural transformation in Botswana; 8. Ethic change among Native Americans in the United States; 9. Ethnic change among the Māori in New Zealand; 10. Conclusion.

About the Author :
Elliott D. Green is Associate Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics. His research focusses on the origins of ethnic and national identification and the political economy of development, with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.

Review :
'Green offers a novel theory of the role industrialization plays in re-shaping ethnic landscapes, highlighting the transformative effects of increases in the value of labour relative to land. He provides compelling quantitative and qualitative evidence from a wide range of country cases, and levels a powerful challenge to prevailing accounts.' Evan Lieberman, Professor of Political Science and Total Chair on Contemporary Africa, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'Green's brilliant new study of how ethnicity changes in response to industrialization offers hope and a deeper understanding of how ethnic identities evolve. Green shows how breaking free from agricultural life also breaks the hold of local ethnic identities; at the same time, he shows how 'top-down' efforts by states to reshape or assimilate their people are generally ineffective or even counter-productive. Using historical studies, cross-national data analysis, and impressive fieldwork, this wide-ranging yet detailed analysis provides convincing evidence that ethnicity is not fixed, but responds to social change.' Jack A. Goldstone, Hazel Chair in Public Policy, George Mason University 'Green takes on big questions about how the structural transformation of the political economy shapes the nature of ethnic identity. This book is terrifically ambitious in theoretical and empirical scope, engaging with a wide range of distinctive empirical cases in both the Global North and Global South. It makes us reconsider how we study the politics of ethnic change in the social sciences.' Lauren M. MacLean, Arthur F. Bentley Chair of Political Science, Indiana University-Bloomington 'The book's empirical scope is impressive …' Jens Schneider, Ethnic and Racial Studies 'This is a remarkable piece of scholarship, with grand ambition and scope. It accomplishes the task of testing arguments in a wide variety of settings, with varied data, emphasising the value of comparative analysis. This is bold and admirable work, which deserves to be read widely.' Dominika Koter, The Journal of Development Studies 'Green contributes one of the most important recent additions to the canon of grand theories of ethnic politics and nationalism. Nimbly integrating ambitious statistical analysis of global patterns with individual life stories from specific countries, this multi-method study makes a powerful case that ethnic change is natural and that it commonly follows material incentives. … It is sure to be a landmark in the field for a long time to come.' Henry E. Hale, Perspectives on Politics