Should We Fear Ethnicity ?
This article proposes an in-depth look at the notion of ethnicity, using as a starting point its definitions and usage in an international university context and how it has come into play in current issues of recognition and social justice. It explores the negative reception and the adverse connotation of the idea of ethnicity in French social science output and in national civil debates, where ethnicity is interpreted as being a red herring that diverts attention from the real mechanisms of domination at work in different societies, and at the same time as potentially in competition with the system of interpretation and the players involved in this domination. Using the debate over ethnic statistics and discrimination in France as an example, the article considers the possibility of using a policy of recognition which would allow individuals to participate in the construction of collective identities by taking into account their « felt experience ». The article shows that if individuals construct the boundaries of their own identity and that of others, their chances of proposing – or contributing to – definitions of these situations are of course relative to the position they occupy in social relationships. Access to the construction of these collective labels could hence constitute a new and contemporary source of social justice. The article concludes by looking at ethnicity as a practical category which can contribute to a theory of action on the role of identity and culture in constructing social relationships.