Cultural Status Inequalities: An Important Dimension of Group Mobilization

Abstract

Recent research on the causes of civil wars and communal, ethnic or religious conflicts has focused predominantly on political and economic grievances, motivations and issues (for example, Collier and Hoeffler, 2004; Fearon and Laitin, 2003; Nafziger and Auvinen, 2002; Stewart, 2000a). However, in many conflicts, political and economic issues are complemented by perceptions of cultural discrimination, exclusion or inequality of treatment. As Horowitz (2002: 22) asserts cultural matters, ‘such as the designation of official languages and official religions, and educational issues, such as languages of instruction, the content of curricula, and the official recognition of degrees from various educational streams associated with various ethnic or religious groups’, and freedom of cultural expression more generally, often play a central role in the emergence of violent conflicts.