The Dictionary of Human Geography

this work because immigration, housing,
employment equity and other policies directly
affect the way in which individuals experience
discrimination and ethnic or racial difference.
While this research has led to important
insights, it has tended to ignore social processes
operating within groups; that is, discrimination
and racialization are emphasized without a cor-
responding interest in the agency of individuals
to create ethnic consciousness and use this to
struggle against domination (Leitner, 1992 –
for examples of geographical work that explores
the relationship between racialization and
agency, see Ley, 1995; Mitchell, 1998; Gibson,
Law and McKay, 2001; Kelly, 2002; also see
identity politics).
Geographers and other social scientists have
also begun to examine the intersections
between ethnicity and other forms of personal
identity and stratification, notablyclassand
gender(e.g. Anthias, 2001). Here, emphasis
is placed in which each dimension of identity
affects all others; for example, masculinity
and femininity may well be defined and
lived differently in different ethnic groups (cf.
feminist geographies). This type of investi-
gation is both conceptually difficult, since
researchers must study many facets of experi-
ence and social structure simultaneously, and
controversial, since it destabilizes traditional
definitions of class and gender. dh

Suggested reading
Amin (2004a); Banton (1983); Mason (1995);
Pincus and Ehrlich (1994); Smaje (1997);
Smith (1989); Sollors (1996).

ethnoburb A term popularized by Li (1998)
to describe the residential patterns of Asian
migrants to Australian, Canadian, New
Zealand and US cities in recent decades.
Traditional models of ethnic residential pat-
terns (following thechicago school) link
them to processes of economic, social and
culturalassimilation, whereby over time eth-
nic groups lose their separateidentityand
merge into the wider population, at the same
time becoming dispersed through the urban
fabric away from their original concentrations
inghetto-like areas. Contemporarymulti-
culturalismpolicies, on the other hand, pro-
mote economic integration alongside cultural
difference, so that ethnic group members
retain their separateness.
Ethnoburbs reflect this changed situation,
involving migrant groups comprising more
skilled and wealthier populations than was
the case in the first half of the twentieth

century – alongside continued streams of

low-status immigrants (such as Hispanics to

the USA and Pacific Islanders to New

Zealand). These new – predominantly Asian

• groups tend to cluster in suburban areas, but
  rarely dominate the local population, although
  perhaps being more visible in thelandscape
  (because of their housing and retail busi-
  nesses) than their numbers suggest. And, Li
  argues, such concentrations may be much
  more permanent elements of the residential
  matrix than the enclaves associated with earlier
  migrant streams. rj

Suggested reading

Li (2006).

ethnocentrism Most cultures and peoples

have historically inscribed themselves at the

centre of the world. ‘Ethnocentrism’ refers

to the practice of taking one’s own subject pos-

ition as the central reference point in relation to

which all others can be arrayed with regard to

theirdifference(see alsoothers/othering).

Like anthropologists and sociologists, geog-

raphers have worked to uncover and counter

the ethnocentricuniversalismimplicit within

much geographical practice and analysis

(Godlewska and Smith, 1994; Agnew, 1998)

(cf.anglocentrism; eurocentrism). as

Suggested reading

Robinson (2003).

ethnocracy A type of regime conceptualized

by geographer Oren Yiftachel during the mid-

1990s, in which a dominant ethno-national

group appropriates the state apparatusto

expand and deepen its control over contested

territoryand power structures (Yiftachel and

Ghanem, 2004). Ethnocracies typically repre-

sent themselves as democracies (seeethnic

democracy), but are characterized by high

levels of unequal segregation between rival eth-

nic nations and by structural inequalities

between ethno-classes within each nation.

Driven by a hegemonic project of ethnicization

and internal colonization, ethnocracies are nei-

ther democratic nor authoritarian. They can be

found in states such as Sri Lanka, Latvia, Israel

and Sudan. Ethnocracies typically lack equal

citizenship, separation of religion and state,

or proportional minority representation and

rights, and have suffered chronic political

instability (Kedar, 2003). oy

ethnography From the Greekethnos (the

nation) andgraphe ̄(writing), ethnography is

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_E Final Proof page 217 1.4.2009 3:17pm

ETHNOGRAPHY