Industrialization and Assimilation
Understanding Ethnic Change in the Modern World

This book explains why industrialization is the most important factor driving assimilation and ethnic change in the modern world.

Elliott D. Green (Author)

9781009268363, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 December 2022

298 pages, 31 b/w illus. 5 maps 15 tables
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.59 kg

'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

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB], Population & demography [JHBD], Ethnic studies [JFSL]