Robert Park and Norbert Elias's contributions to ethnic and racial studies: A relational approach

Abstract

Since Weber's work on ethnic affinities, two centuries have passed in which scholars have drawn on sociological traditions in attempts to capture the characteristics and complexities of ethnic and racial phenomena. While some authors' works have been critically acclaimed and widely cited, others remain somewhat more peripheral, including two of sociology's more famous names from the classical cannon: Robert Park and Norbert Elias. In this paper I present these seminal thinkers' central ideas, discussing some of the crucial points of convergence, as well as limitations and divergences between them, and conclude with some of the contributions that might be applicable for studying ethnic and racial phenomena as intrinsically relational and processual. I suggest that this approach is valuable for avoiding dichotomising tendencies frequently found in ongoing debates between primordialist, constructivist, situationalist, and instrumental accounts of intergroup identities. I note that neither Elias nor Park's individual approaches are sufficient as self‐contained theoretical frameworks for the task of advancing an understanding relational ethnicity, but it is precisely in their conceptual convergencies where there is potential for moving forwards.