The internal and external perception of Latin America is influenced by the sociocultural heterogeneity of the continent.
Currently, on the one hand, the gulf between the poor and the rich is diverging more and more and this is also influenced by
ethnic adscriptions as well as it determines them. On the other hand, the rights of political participation are also bound to
ethnic criteria. Considering the actual situation, for the first time some Latin-American societies try to come up to their
multi-ethnicity regarding their concepts of political order, like for example through appropriate constitutional amendments.
With this, they try to weaken historically rooted, social, economical, political and cultural mechanisms of exclusion in order
to moderate the social rift within the nation. Global economic developments advance the migration of workers and lead to new
transcultural and transregional processes of differentiation. Considering this background the actual as well as the historical
phenomena of inclusion and exclusion shall be investigated. The perception of inclusion as defined in social research (Foucault
1975, Luhmann 1995, Ziemann 1998) as a "consideration of persons in social systems, whereas exclusion means their
marginalization respectively their non-consideration" (Hahn, Schorch 2007, p. 253, Stichweh 2007, p. 231) serves as background.
Within this framework, the Research Network for Latin America will present a series of interrelated case studies, which
investigate the structures and perceptions of ethnicity, citizenship and belonging. In doing so, it will also systematically
refocus on the approaches of the corresponding Latin-American theory formation, as for example the concept of transculturation
(Ortiz 1940, Pumar 2003, Millington 2005), which in the meantime also has been increasingly adopted in the international
sociology. Because of reasons relating to terms of content and methods this is necessary for the refinement and sharpening
of the terms, not least by studying from the first the research field from an interdisciplinary perspective. The goal is not
only to reach regional-specific cognizance through the theoretic-methodical work with particular case studies, but also to
give an impulse for the theoretical debate in other regions of the world.
The project focuses on the conjoint elaboration of a transdisciplinary and transregional theoretical concept for the
key terms ethnicity, citizenship and belonging, which can be discussed also for other region of the world. Until now,
such definitions have been elaborated almost only within the particular disciplines and regions. Apart from this, the
elaboration of new concepts is intended. The term "ethnic citizenship" (ciudadanía étnica) which connects ethnicity and
citizenship may serve as an example (Rößler 2008, Büschges 2008).
The socio-cultural positioning of individuals and groups is influenced by a multitude of interdependent factors. Three
working groups deal with these factors on the basis of three research questions. First the question arises how the subject
of inclusion and exclusion is communicated in the political space and by which factors this communication is influenced. How
political and other "spaces" are constituted, is being investigated in the second working group. There is a special focus on
the factors migration and localization. Finally the third working group studies interdependencies with other central
categories of differentiation and identity: social class, gender, age and differentiation concerning "races". By this
tripartition, the research field becomes clearer and easier to handle. Every working group investigates then, to what
extent the theoretical concepts are applicable to the praxis, and conversely, to what extent the theoretical concepts are
tenable with a view to concrete developments.
"Mobilizing Ethnicity"
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