Groupism

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Groupism is a theoretical approach in sociology that posits that conformity to the laws/norms of a group such as family, kinship, race, ethnicity, religion and nationality brings reciprocal benefits such as recognition, right, power and security. [1] It is the principle that a person's primary or prioritised identity is that of membership in a social network. Groupists assume that individuals in a group tend to have stronger affinity and obligation to a particular group when the influence of an authority figure brings a common goal. [1] The concept of groupism can be defined and criticized in varied ways for disciplines such as sociology, social psychology, anthropology, political history and philosophy. Group-ism is defined in most dictionaries as the behavior of a member of a group where they think and act as the group norm at the expense of individualism. [2] The term originated around mid 19th century and the first known use of the word recorded was in 1851. [2] It is a general definition often used in Indian English as the tendency to form factions in a system setting. [3] The term had also been used for “the principles or practices of Oxford Group movement” which is now historical and rare. [3]

Contents

Perspectives: criticism

Rogers Brubaker: Social groupism

"The tendency to take discrete, sharply differentiated, internally homogeneous and externally bounded groups as basic constituents of social life, chief protagonists of social conflicts, and fundamental units of social analysis"

Groupism has been a deeply entrenched and fundamental aspect of social analysis of nationalism, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexuality, age, class [4] or even groups with combination of these categories but with a common interest in other universal categories like sports, music and values. It is commonly seen on everyday context in media reports and even academic research leading to policy analysis. According to Brubaker, it is the view that division among humans such as ethnicity is an absolute, unchanging entity rather than a changing conceptual variable subject to time and context. [5] It is the tendency to take discrete groups as chief protagonists of social conflicts, to reify such groups as if they were unitary collective actors. It is considered a "process in which individuals are reduced to specific group characteristic which are politicised as boundaries". [6] Conceptual groupism involves essentialising groups without taking into account that such habit of giving groups performative character taken into account in ethnopolitical conflict analysis could lead to intentional/unintentional framing of conflict between groups. [7] In the example of ethnic groups, it involves viewing an individual in the group as the collective representative of the values or conflicts associated with the social norm of that group. [8] American sociologist Rogers Brubaker has criticised conceptual groupism for its stereotypical approach in social and political analysis which leads to decisions that trivialize individual need to protect the labelled collective interest of a political group or institution. [4] Brubaker suggests that instead of taking "groups" as substantial entities, social and political analysis of the "groupness" should be brought about in terms of political, social, cultural and psychological processes listed below [4]

According to Norwegian anthropologist Fredric Barth, ethnicity, race and nationality categories are a matter of factors such as self identification/external categorisation, at individual/institutional level or formal/ informal context. Research on how ethnic, racial and national groups are classified and categorised began through studies on the colonial and post colonial societies. [9] Brubaker suggests that there should be a focus on categories so that ethnicity, race and nationhood can co exist without ethnic 'groups' as separate entities as transforming groups into categories reduces the extent to which misleading political and legal analysis based on groupism turns to a framed reality. [4]

Legal groupism is the construction of groups in legal matter as defined by the German legal scholar Susanne Baer. Legal groupism also posits that equal right should be given to groups hence assuming that people always belong to a "distinguishable" group rather than many. This concept is regarded as problematic because most groups have unclear and shifting boundaries due to individuals living multiple identities and group characteristics. [10] Therefore, Legal groupism come into conflict with the idea of individual rights when human rights issues are constructed as group issues in law and complete autonomy given to major religious institution in the name of religious freedom then curtail individual human right issues. [6] For example, when constitutional law allows churches and religious communities to self determine matters conflicting with human rights without considering the rights of diverse individuals within a seemingly homogeneous group, [10] such overlapping between human rights and religion has led to lack of legal intervention in matters like sexual discrimination. For example, religious authority power to internally handle child abuse cases, the European Union's exemption of religious organisation from fundamental rights in the EU proposal for a new Directive against discrimination 2008. [6]

Case studies

It has been estimated that there are over 300 million indigenous people around the world some among which includes the Red Indians, Sami in Northern Europe, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia and the Maori of New Zealand, Ainu people of Japan, Bantu in Somalia, Assyrians of the Middle east, the Kazakhs, Mongols, Tajik, Tibetans, Ugyur, and Eurasian Nomads of Kazakhstan, eastern Russia. [11] In order to acquire group rights indigenous people also happen to be under the regulation of national and international law. Although International customary law at the United nation and elsewhere has regarded indigenous people as a category since the 20th century, the definition of indigenous people has been a subject of ongoing debate at the national level since their classification as a group by the national law has interfered with their traditional group making processes. [8] For example, The Finland government ratified ILO convention no.169 in 1989 which involved declaration of right for indigenous people of Finland such as the following definition of legal requirement to vote to the election of the Sami parliament. [12]

"For the purpose of this Act, a Sami means a person who considers himself a Sami, provided:

1. That he himself or at least one of his parents or grandparents has learnt Sami as his first language;

2. That he is a descendant of a person who has been entered in a land, taxation or population register as a mountain, forest or fishing Lapp; or

3. That at least one of his parents has or could have been registered as an elector for an election to the Sami Delegation or the Sami Parliament." [12]

This definition has led to the Sámi debate in Finland a problem of defining the legal status of Sámi indigenous people as the groupist system of political and legal analysis has framed indigeinity as a political requirement rather than an ethnocultural reality hence the inconsistency between the definition that Sami people has held for their kinship. [8]

Groupism in Japan

Groupism is viewed as deeply rooted part of the Japanese group oriented society known for their high productivity, cooperative attitude and surpassing international competitive strength. [13] Some of the key aspects of groupism in Japanese society has been discussed in the journal article, 'The Paradox of Japan's Groupism: Threat to Future Competitiveness' by Kanji Haitani. [13]

  1. Identity and well-being: unmei kyodotai meaning "communities of shared destiny" is a core principle in Japanese culture where an individual's well-being and sense of security is maximised as a result of recognition and prosperity they get as a group.
  2. Seniority: There is close correlation between a member's age and their rank in a system.
  3. Emphasis on the relationships of harmony and conflict (wa): The wa concept encompasses the concept of 'Isshin – dotai' meaning 'one mind – same body'. Here 'one mind' refers to how senior members take into account the views of junior members who reciprocally internalizes the wisdom of the senior members.
  4. The insider-outsider mentality: Insider and Outsider groups are generally separated with clear distinction.
  5. Rank and status consciousness
  6. The closed nature of Japanese market in context of international economy

Social hierarchy in traditional music making process

The ryūha-iemoto system refers to social organisation in Japanese traditional music making which is shown to be dominated by the hierarchical form of groupism. This involves an authoritative group called "Miyagi- ha" at the top of hierarchy who gets the greatest benefits of musical freedom, recognition, power and money. This group is known for transmission of their composition to subgroups down in the hierarchy. One of the characteristics of this form of social organisation involves lifetime affiliation as a subgroup member whereby there is no "graduation" or "becoming a free musician". [14]

Nationalism

A form of groupism which generally began as a sense of security provided by national identity to an unquestioning acceptance of a political agenda. [1] It is based on an abstract mentality of “victory” in one's own group and considering the “other” as a separate entity. [1] The irrational obedience of German citizens during the Nazi regime of the 1930s and 1940s holocaust is a well known example of the negative consequences rooted in groupism. [15] In terms of Legal studies, international lawyer Philip Allot has criticized the concept of state sovereignty in the current international laws in promoting groupism and the lack of reform in the 21st century context. [1]

Prejudice and discrimination

Prejudice against certain groups of people is rooted in groupism whereby conclusions or attitude about a group of people is drawn without evaluating the evidence and often leads to discrimination which refers to the behaviour of treating other groups in a different way than one's own group.[9]

Persuasion

Persuasion through individuals, sub-groups or the group as a whole leads to behavioural change without rational choice. It also involves the power of normative influence from one's heritage, culture and tradition to which people comply with its social norms to gain recognition or to avoid other's disapproval. [15] These concepts are broadly summarised in terms of groupism and can have both positive and negative connotation based on varying scale of groupism in a formal or informal system. Extreme forms of groupism well known in the past and present includes racism, bigotry, terrorism, genocide, dictatorship and war. [1]

Social psychology

Social Psychology brings the concept of how individual psyche is shaped by the sociological constructs. [16] In summary, social constructs formed by prejudice, discrimination, racism and nationalism can be ascribed to groupism which an individual can obtain throughout life based on their socio-cultural and historical context that leads to psychological development as a child. [17] Social loafing is the phenomenon when the presence of other members in a group causes some to avoid responsibilities and exert less effort towards a group goal. Social disruption whereby the presence of others negatively influences the performance of tasks. Social facilitation which is a phenomenon proposed by Robert Zajonc is another example of the positive aspects of groupism where the presence and influence of diverse groups enhances the performance of a task. This is the opposite of social disruption whereby the presence of others negatively influences the performance of tasks that are relatively difficult.

Group selection

Scientific evidence from early hominids in Africa that shows humans have evolved as small social groups that are predisposed to include or exclude others in an instinctual manner. [18] Evolution of humans as a unitary social species has led to the social status and sense of belonging that comes with identifying oneself or being identified as an individual in different categories of group. Research by anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggested that the ratio of the size of the neocortex to the brain size determines the amount of social relationship in different species and found that humans have relatively high social brain that can have tendency to form greater interpersonal networks of small groups than animals such as chimpanzees and dolphins with smaller neocortex size to brain size ratio hence smaller number of relationships. [19] Groupism has been explained in terms of a biological need to form social bonds according to the need to belong theory whereby deprivation of this need has been shown to have Bio-psycho-social consequences. [20] From the perspective of evolution, social influences on the individual based on natural selection has led to better adaptation and survival in various environments. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discrimination</span> Prejudicial treatment based on membership in a certain group

Discrimination is the act of making unjustified, prejudiced distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, religion, disability, or sexual orientation, as well as other categories. Discrimination especially occurs when individuals or groups are unfairly treated in a way which is worse than other people are treated, on the basis of their actual or perceived membership in certain groups or social categories. It involves restricting members of one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to members of another group.

Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity. Modern variants of racism are often based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. These views can take the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems in which different races are ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. There have been attempts to legitimize racist beliefs through scientific means, such as scientific racism, which have been overwhelmingly shown to be unfounded. In terms of political systems that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices or laws, racist ideology may include associated social aspects such as nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, and supremacism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe</span> Human social group

The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. Its definition is contested, in part due to conflicting theoretical understandings of social and kinship structures, and also reflecting the problematic application of this concept to extremely diverse human societies. The concept is often contrasted by anthropologists with other social and kinship groups, being hierarchically larger than a lineage or clan, but smaller than a chiefdom, nation or state. These terms are equally disputed. In some cases tribes have legal recognition and some degree of political autonomy from national or federal government, but this legalistic usage of the term may conflict with anthropological definitions.

An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, race, language, history, society, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area. The term ethnicity is often used interchangeably with the term nation, particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism.

Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights. Empowerment as action refers both to the process of self-empowerment and to professional support of people, which enables them to overcome their sense of powerlessness and lack of influence, and to recognize and use their resources.

In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defined from a human resources perspective, where it denotes a level of discretion granted to an employee in his or her work. In such cases, autonomy is known to generally increase job satisfaction. Self-actualized individuals are thought to operate autonomously of external expectations. In a medical context, respect for a patient's personal autonomy is considered one of many fundamental ethical principles in medicine.

A person is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinship</span> Web of human social relationships

In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that the study of kinship is the study of what humans do with these basic facts of life – mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship etc. Human society is unique, he argues, in that we are "working with the same raw material as exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to serve social ends." These social ends include the socialization of children and the formation of basic economic, political and religious groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institution</span> Structure or mechanism of social order

Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and norms are all examples of institutions. Institutions vary in their level of formality and informality.

The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number of individuals is therefore the 'minority'. However, in terms of sociology, economics, and politics; a demographic which takes up the smallest fraction of the population is not necessarily the 'minority'. In the academic context, 'minority' and 'majority' groups are more appropriately understood in terms of hierarchical power structures. For example, in South Africa during Apartheid, white Europeans held virtually all social, economic, and political power over black Africans. For this reason, black Africans are the 'minority group', despite the fact that they outnumber white Europeans in South Africa. This is why academics more frequently use the term 'minority group' to refer to a category of people who experience relative disadvantage as compared to members of a dominant social group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dehumanization</span> Behavior or process that undermines individuality of and in others

Dehumanization is the denial of full humanness in others and the cruelty and suffering that accompanies it. A practical definition refers to it as the viewing and treatment of other people as though they lack the mental capacities that are commonly attributed to human beings. In this definition, every act or thought that regards a person as "less than" human is dehumanization.

Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or group.

Human security is a paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenges the traditional notion of national security through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be at the human rather than national level. Human security reveals a people-centred and multi-disciplinary understanding of security which involves a number of research fields, including development studies, international relations, strategic studies, and human rights. The United Nations Development Programme's 1994 Human Development Report is considered a milestone publication in the field of human security, with its argument that ensuring "freedom from want" and "freedom from fear" for all persons is the best path to tackle the problem of global insecurity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political psychology</span> Branch of psychology

Political psychology is an interdisciplinary academic field, dedicated to understanding politics, politicians and political behavior from a psychological perspective, and psychological processes using socio-political perspectives. The relationship between politics and psychology is considered bidirectional, with psychology being used as a lens for understanding politics and politics being used as a lens for understanding psychology. As an interdisciplinary field, political psychology borrows from a wide range of disciplines, including: anthropology, economics, history, international relations, journalism, media, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National identity</span> Identity or sense of belonging to one state or to one nation

National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity may refer to the subjective feeling one shares with a group of people about a nation, regardless of one's legal citizenship status. National identity is viewed in psychological terms as "an awareness of difference", a "feeling and recognition of 'we' and 'they'". National identity also includes the general population and diaspora of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation while being made up of several component ethnic groups. Hyphenated ethnicities are an example of the confluence of multiple ethnic and national identities within a single person or entity.

Social position is the position of an individual in a given society and culture. A given position may belong to many individuals.

Global citizenship is the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives their nationality or other, more local identities, but that such identities are given "second place" to their membership in a global community. Extended, the idea leads to questions about the state of global society in the age of globalization.

Legal anthropology, also known as the anthropology of laws, is a sub-discipline of anthropology follows inter disciplinary approach which specializes in "the cross-cultural study of social ordering". The questions that Legal Anthropologists seek to answer concern how is law present in cultures? How does it manifest? How may anthropologists contribute to understandings of law?

Social privilege is a theory of special advantage or entitlement, which benefits one person, often to the detriment of others. Privileged groups can be advantaged based on education, social class, caste, age, height, weight, nationality, geographic location, disability, ethnic or racial category, gender, gender identity, neurology, sexual orientation, physical attractiveness, religion, and other differentiating factors. It is generally considered to be a theoretical concept used in a variety of subjects and often linked to social inequality. Privilege is also linked to social and cultural forms of power. It began as an academic concept, but has since been invoked more widely, outside of academia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of race and ethnic relations</span> Field of study

The sociology of race and ethnic relations is the study of social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. This area encompasses the study of systemic racism, like residential segregation and other complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Latella, Matthew (1994). "Rethinking Groupism: An Alternative to the Postmodern Strategy". Dalhousie J. Legal Stud. 3: 137.
  2. 1 2 "Groupism". Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  3. 1 2 "groupism | Definition of groupism in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on October 20, 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Brubaker, Rogers (2004), "Ethnicity without groups" (PDF), Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights (PDF), Cambridge University Press, pp. 50–77, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511489235.004, ISBN   978-0-511-48923-5
  5. ↑ "Ethnicity without Groups", Remaking Modernity, Duke University Press, 2005-01-11, pp. 470–492, doi:10.1215/9780822385882-016, ISBN   978-0-8223-8588-2
  6. 1 2 3 Baer, Susanne (2013). "Privatizing Religion. Legal Groupism, No-Go-Areas, and the Public-Private-Ideology in Human Rights Politics". Constellations. 20 (1): 68–84. doi:10.1111/cons.12024. ISSN   1351-0487.
  7. ↑ editor., Roth, Klaus, 1939- editor. Kartarı, Asker, 1952- (2016). Cultures of crisis in Southeast Europe. ISBN   978-3-643-90763-9. OCLC   951762202.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  8. 1 2 3 Valkonen, Jarno; Valkonen, Sanna; Koivurova, Timo (2016-06-19). "Groupism and the politics of indigeneity: A case study on the Sámi debate in Finland" (PDF). Ethnicities. 17 (4): 526–545. doi:10.1177/1468796816654175. ISSN   1468-7968. S2CID   147950394.
  9. ↑ BRUBAKER, ROGERS; LOVEMAN, MARA; STAMATOV, PETER (2004). "Ethnicity as cognition". Theory and Society. 33 (1): 31–64. doi:10.1023/b:ryso.0000021405.18890.63. ISSN   0304-2421. S2CID   10978496.
  10. 1 2 editor., Rosenfeld, Michel, 1948- editor. Sajó, András (2013-09-26). The Oxford handbook of comparative constitutional law. ISBN   9780199689286. OCLC   852806207.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  11. ↑ "Indigenous Peoples of the World" (PDF). Manitoba. 2018.
  12. 1 2 Swepston, Lee (2015), "Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169)", The Foundations of Modern International Law on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, Brill, pp. 343–358, doi:10.1163/9789004289062_010, ISBN   9789004289062
  13. 1 2 Haitani, Kanji (1990). "The Paradox of Japan's Groupism: Threat to Future Competitiveness?". Asian Survey. 30 (3): 237–250. doi:10.2307/2644563. ISSN   0004-4687. JSTOR   2644563.
  14. ↑ Halliwell, Patrick (2004). "Groupism and Individualism in Japanese Traditional Music". The World of Music. 46: 2.
  15. 1 2 3 author., Lilienfeld, Scott O., 1960- (2014-03-18). Psychology : from inquiry to understanding. ISBN   9780133793048. OCLC   869584554.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  16. ↑ House, James S. (1991), "Sociology, Psychology and Social Psychology (and Social Science)", The Future of Social Psychology, Recent Research in Psychology, Springer New York, pp. 45–60, doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-3120-2_4, ISBN   9780387974873
  17. ↑ Margaret., Khalakdina (2011). Human Development in the Indian Context, Volume II : a Socio-Cultural Focus. SAGE Publications, Incorporated. ISBN   978-8132105817. OCLC   847948001.
  18. ↑ J., Lawler, Edward (1986). Advances in group processes : a research annual. JAI Press. ISBN   978-0-89232-572-6. OCLC   21052740.
  19. ↑ Dunbar, R. I. M. (1993). "Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 16 (4): 681–694. doi:10.1017/s0140525x00032325. ISSN   0140-525X. S2CID   145583615.
  20. ↑ Baumeister, Roy F.; Leary, Mark R. (1995). "The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation". Psychological Bulletin. 117 (3): 497–529. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497. ISSN   0033-2909. PMID   7777651.
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