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Description
ABSTRACT/RESUME
Recent research in the field of ethnic conflict studies has taken up the theme of social capital. Bridging social capital, the interaction of members of different ethnic groups in associations of various types, is credited with helping to maintain peaceful ethnic relations. This paper evaluates that theory in the case of New Brunswick, using data from the New Brunswick Social Capital Survey (2003 NBSCS). We find no evidence that interethnic interactions in associational life are an important ingredient in explaining the absence of significant ethnic conflict in the province. Instead, other dimensions of associational involvement, including membership in multiple groups, intensive participation, and long-time involvement, have considerably stronger effects on attitudes conducive to social harmony.
De recentes recherches menees dans le domaine des etudes sur les conflits ethniques ont eu pour theme central le capital social. Le capital social, c'est a-dire l'interaction de membres d'appartenance ethnique differente au sein d'associations diverses, aurait l'avantage de maintenir la paix dans les relations ethniques. Ces travaux tentent d'evaluer la theorie, dans le cas du Nouveau-Brunswick, a partir des donnees tirees de l'enquete sur le capital social du Nouveau-Brunswick (2003 NBSCS). Rien n'indique que l'interaction interethnique dans la vie associative soit un element d'importance pouvant expliquer l'absence de conflits ethniques marques dans la province. En revanche, d'autres aspects de la vie associative, dont l'adhesion a plusieurs groupes, une participation intensive et durable, ont des effets bien plus considerables sur les attitudes qui favorisent l'harmonie sociale.
INTRODUCTION
The past decade has seen an explosion of research focussing on social capital, the term used to describe the norms of trust and reciprocity developed in societies where citizens regularly interact with one another through civic involvement, membership in voluntary associations, and the like. The theory holds that social capital contributes significantly to a wide variety of positive social, economic, and political outcomes, including vigorous democratic participation and good government, effective education systems, healthy populations, economic prosperity, and low levels of crime (Putnam 2000).
Ashutosh Varshney recently drew attention to another putative benefit of social capital: its capacity to contain conflict in ethnically diverse societies. Focussing on the tensions between Hindus and Muslims in modern-day India, Varshney demonstrates the significant variation in levels of communal violence in different Indian cities and identifies associational ties at the local level as a critical factor underlying this variation (2001a, 2002). This intriguing account represents a valuable addition to the burgeoning literature on social capital, as well as an innovative approach to the field of ethnic conflict studies.
Varshney's work builds on a distinction central to the broader social capital literature: bonding versus bridging social capital (Putnam 2000, 22). Applying this distinction to ethnically diverse India, he distinguishes between intraethnic and interethnic networks of association. The fundamental point is that in ethnically divided societies, associational ties are most valuable when they cross ethnic boundaries. This observation represents an extension of the more general finding that associations with heterogeneous memberships tend to have more beneficial consequences for society at large than those with homogeneous memberships (Stolle 1998).
A concern that arises in considering the work of Varshney and others, however, is the direction of causality between ethnic interaction in associations and peaceable ethnic relations. Where ethnic tensions run high, the likelihood of people from different ethnic groups coming together in sporting clubs, business associations, and the like is presumably reduced; conversely, where relations are amicable and violence-free, there will be a greater willingness to associate with ethnic others. In other words, potential bias arising from self-selection into interethnic associational life must be considered, a bias that will operate most obviously at the individual level, but will also carry over to aggregate levels of analysis. In cities and towns where there is a history of enmity, interethnic associations will be less likely to form than in places where accord has been the norm (Forbes 2003, 174). To date, most work in this emerging area of research has focussed on high conflict situations (Goodhand, Hulme, and Lewer 2000; Byrne 2001; Reilly and Phillpot 2002) where potential endogeneity of this sort must be considered a significant obstacle to definitive conclusions.
Varshney is sensitive to these concerns and attempts to address the matter (2002, 262-78). One way to further advance this research agenda is to consider ethnically diverse places where overt conflict has been minimal and ethnic identity is consequently less salient. In such places, decisions about involvement in associational life, both individual and in the aggregate, are less likely to be affected by pre-existing sentiment toward ethnic others. Instead, peoples' reasons for joining will primarily be a function of the degree to which the activities and purposes of associations align with their personal values and interests. That this might bring them together with members of other ethnic groups will be only an incidental feature of their involvement-but one that might have salutary effects on attitudes conducive to social harmony if the thinking of Varshney and others is correct.
With this methodological consideration in mind, the research strategy in this paper is to consider the role of social capital in maintaining ethnic harmony in New Brunswick, the Canadian province with the greatest numerical parity between its Anglophone and Francophone populations (roughly two-thirds and one-third, respectively). Reinforcing this language divide is religion, as virtually all Francophones are Catholic, and a large majority of Anglophones are Protestant. While there are other distinct groups in the province, most notably Aboriginal communities, it is fair to say that the French/English divide has been the defining cleavage affecting New Brunswick politics. The minority status of the French and the historical injustices visited upon them-not the least of which was the deportation of thousands by the British colonial authority from 1755 to 1763-have long placed them on the defensive, seeking to protect their language and culture and the interests of their community against the seeming indifference, if not outright hostility, of the English majority. Significant advances came in the 1960s under francophone premier Louis Robichaud, who introduced programs designed to promote social and economic equality-which in practice mainly meant improving the lot of impoverished Francophones-and introduced official bilingualism to the province. Resentment and backlash among some sections of the Anglophone population were ever present, surfacing inter alia in the emergence in the early 1990s of the Confederation of the Regions Party, which called for the repeal of official bilingualism. The party's success was short-lived, however, and New Brunswick politics has now settled back into its traditional two-party dominant system, with both main parties, Conservative and Liberal, practicing pragmatic brokerage politics and seeking support from both ethnic communities (Cross and Stewart 2001). In short, the ethnic divide in New Brunswick has been salient and persistent and has been the basis for important political claims and movements, but has ultimately been managed and accommodated successfully with little, if any, extremism or violence. Ethnic identity matters in New Brunswick, but because of relative success in keeping conflict in check, is not nearly as salient as in other, more troubled parts of the world. This makes it an interesting test case for studying Varshney's social capital theory, as self-selection bias in interethnic associational involvement should be weaker than in other settings.
Aside from its status as a relatively placid society marked by important ethnic demarcations, there are other reasons for thinking New Brunswick a useful place for further testing the relationship between social capital... |
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