Interethnic Contact in Integrated Churches
Mediation without Transformation of Majority-Roma Relations in Central Europe
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8249358 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sara Jean Tomczuk (University of Washington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 115-129 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology of Race and Ethnicity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2332-6492 • E-ISSN: 2332-6506 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/2332649217753647 |
| OpenAlex | W2793416551 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 29 |
While intergroup contact and group position scholars have found that individuals can maintain prejudice despite associational contact and affective ties, this study finds that integrated organizations can specifically mediate ethnic relations through managing threat to the privileged majority’s group position. In Slovakia, where Roma are generally even more impoverished and interethnic relations are just as tense, group-level interethnic conflict occurs less often than in the neighboring Czech Republic. Integrated church organizations in Slovakia seem to provide opportunities for associational interethnic contact, known to contain conflict. In reality, while Slovak church leaders manage to integrate their organizations to varying extents, perceived threat to majority group position limits their ability to truly transform unequal ethnic relations. A comparison to the socially and politically similar Czech case, where neither secular and religiously affiliated organizations are able to play this role among a generally nonreligious population, demonstrates that Whites perceive both service provision and advocacy as threatening their group position. Organizations thus settle for brokering relationships between Romani communities and official institutions, not with their White neighbors. With evidence from semi-structured interviews with key respondents conducted between 2014 and 2015, I argue that Slovak churches and church-affiliated organizations racially integrate and maintain peaceful relations not through the expected routes, but through mediating structured interethnic relations. By focusing on service provision, limiting Romani participation, or internally segregating the organization, Whites can mentally maintain their superior group position despite integration. These findings have implications for all multi-ethnic societies interested both in maintaining interethnic peace and pursuing racial equity
Contact hypothesis · Czech · Ethnic group · Group conflict · Mediation · Minority group · Political science · Population · Position (finance · Prejudice (legal term · Slovak · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Romani and Gypsy Studies · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
The origins of the civil rights movement
Organizing for equality
An integrative theory of intergroup contact
The Elusive Dream
How Long? How Long
Being ‘one of them’
Divergent responses to a common past
Contention, consensus, and memories of communism
Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position
Introduction to the special issue
Does Familiarity Breed Contempt? Inter-Ethnic Contact and Support for Illiberal Parties
Intergroup Contact Theory
Perceptions of Racial Group Competition
Contact Theory in a Small-Town Settler-Colonial Context
Secular Czechs and Devout Slovaks
Resource Competition Theories
The Religious Roots of Modern Poverty Policy
Interethnic relations in Northern Iraq
Brokerage
Race, Religious Organizations, and Integration
The multiple dimensions of race
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |