Violent conflict and ethnicity in the Congo
Beyond Materialism, Primordialism and Symbolism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5680872 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kasper Hoffmann (0000-0001-5654-3870, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author), Koen Vlassenroot (0000-0003-3478-132X, Ghent University), Tatiana Carayannis (0000-0002-4790-0992, Social Science Research Council), Godefroid Muzalia (0000-0001-7084-7571, Groupes d’Études sur les Conflits et la Sécurité Humaine, ISP/Bukavu, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 539-560 |
| Publication date | 2020-09-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Conflict Security and Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1467-8802 • E-ISSN: 1478-1174 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14678802.2020.1840789 |
| OpenAlex | W3120363704 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 68 |
In this paper, we investigate the nexus between ethnicity and violent conflict in the Congo. We make three interlocking arguments. First, we argue that ethnicity is a defining political resource in the Congo’s politics and violent conflicts, which we call ‘ethnic capital’. Second, we argue that the high political value of this ethnic capital is sustained by engrained discourses and practices of ethnicity. These discourses and practices permeate the Congo’s political order, shape people’s understanding of politics, conflict and political identities, and have contributed to the formation of an unstable, centrifugal, and fragmentary political order. Third, we argue that conceptualising ethnicity as capital dismantles the artificial dualism between the symbolic realm of identities and the material realm of the economy and makes it possible to move beyond primordialist, instrumentalist and purely symbolic understandings of the nexus between conflict and ethnicity. Ultimately, what is at stake in this competition is the distribution of symbolic and material resources
Dualism · Epistemology · Ethnic conflict · Ethnic group · Geography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Realm · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Cambodian History and Society · Gender Studies · Law · Political Conflict and Governance
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| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |