Measuring Ethnic Identity and Conflict
Lecture at the ECMI 13th Annual Summer School in Belgrade introducing MA and PhD students to quantitative methods for measuring ethnic identity, group boundaries, and conflict.
I delivered this lecture at the 13th Annual ECMI Summer School on National Minorities in Border Regions, held in Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia, from 27 August to 3 September 2023. The session guided participants (MA and PhD students from 14 countries) through the conceptual and methodological challenges of measuring ethnic identity and conflict in comparative perspective. I introduced quantitative approaches, discussed the opportunities and limitations of large-N datasets, and ran practical exercises using the Ethnic Power Relations (EPR) Dataset, which my research group at ETH Zurich helps maintain. The broader summer school programme focused on the causes of ethnic conflict, from micro-level triggers to long-term structural factors such as poverty, discrimination, and political exclusion.