Ethnicity.

Abstract

Defines the complex concept of ethnicity as the product of two separate structures - the biological and the cultural - with different combinations of the two factors producing a series of distinct ethnicities. In considering the process of assimilation by which ethnicity is modified, the main difference between the spatial and aspatial viewpoints is the importance attached to segregation the former viewing it as an important casual factor and the latter merely as a casual outcome. Understanding of ethnicity and assimilation has been furthered by studies employing the 'index of dissimilarity' and the construction and use of this devise is examined in detail. The relationship between ethnicity and class and the effect of income on segregation are then discussed before attention turns to the critical question of the degree to which ethnic segregation is the result of choice or constraints imposed by a hostile environment. -Editor