13TH IMISCOE ANNUAL CONFERENCE, PRAGUE, JUNE 30-JULY 2, 2016
‘MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT’
Session: Perceived ethnic diversity: empirical results, theoretical issues, methodological approaches
Organiser: IMISCOE Research Group “Diversity, Migration and Social Cohesion (Div/Mig/Soc)”
Chair: Aneta Piekut (Sheffield Methods Institute, the University of Sheffield)
Recently, there has been an increasing number of studies on the relationship between diversity and neighbourhood relations, attitudes and social cohesion This research has mostly relied on measures of objective diversity, i.e. such obtained in official statistics on the population composition. Yet, ethnic diversity is not only factual, measured by demographic indicators, but some differences are more visible, perceptible, pronounced and acknowledged, depending on historical and societal contexts, as well as on the dominant public narratives (i.e. in politics or the media). Research demonstrates that not only actual diversity, but also the perceived level of diversity is associated with intergroup relations, i.e. prejudice, social distance and trust (e.g. Strabac 2011; Hooghe & Vroome 2013; Schaeffer, 2014).
Whilst ethnic actual diversity is measured using available demographic data and ethnic categories, ethnic perceived diversity is socially constructed in everyday interactions. People draw demarcation lines between particular social groups and categories, classifying certain groups as dominant ones, i.e. the majority population, and some groups as ‘different’. As such, the conceptual status, as well the measurement of perceived diversity is a challenging task for scholars. Who and why is perceived as different, and why some areas are perceived as more diverse than others, and what are the consequences of these perceptions – are important questions that should be investigated by social scientists.
This session invites papers on the following topics:
- Theoretical conceptualizations of perceived diversity;
- Measuring perceived diversity at different levels: neighbourhood, regional, national;
- The relationship of perceived diversity with measures of actual diversity (e.g. diversity indexes);
- Perceived diversity and other perceptual measures: perceived otherness, perceived similarity, perceived outgroup size;
- The relationship of perceived diversity with social cohesion, e.g. attitudes, trust, voluntary participation, social relations;
- Determinants of perceived diversity;
- Causality and endogeneity problems in studying perceived diversity.
We welcome submissions from a broad range of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and geographical locations.
Submission of abstracts:
Please submit an abstract to