Ethnic diversity is typically measured by the well-known Hirschman-Herfindahl Index. This paper discusses the merits of an alternative approach, which is in our view better suited to tease out why and how ethnic diversity matters. The approach consists of two elements. First, all existing...

The question whether ethnic diversity is associated with declining social cohesion has produced much controversy. We maintain that more attention must be paid to cognitive mechanisms to move the debate ahead. Using survey data from 938 localities in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, we...

Students of social movements have long struggled with the question how relatively abstract political opportunities, such as elite divisions, affect unorganized activists without much knowledge of politics. We argue that the relationship between institutional opportunities and decisions to...

This WZB Discussion Paper documents in detail the representative claims analysis conducted within the WZB bridging project 'The Political Sociology of Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism'. It serves as methodological background for interpreting the dataset and findings based upon it. The paper...

In this paper, we develop a systematic approach to Europeanisation of the public sphere, distinguishing three forms of Europeanisation of public political communication: supranationally, vertically and horizontally. These forms materialise through communicative linkages between political actors...

Das Bild ethnischer Minderheiten in Deutschland beruht vornehmlich auf der medialen Darstellung, der politischen Perzeption und der sozialstatistischen Erfassung von „Ausländern“. Dabei sind Ausländer im formellen Sinne spätestens seit der verstärkten Zuwanderung „volksdeutscher“...

Whether the possibilities for new forms of political communication that are offered by the Internet have positive or negative impacts on the constitution of democratic and transnational public spheres is a controversial debate that so far involves much speculation. This paper investigates how...

In this article we develop and test an encompassing theoretical framework for explaining the geographical and temporal spread of extreme right violence. This framework combines structural factors related to ethnic competition, social disintegration, and political opportunity structures, which...