Educations in Ethnic Violence

Matthew Lange is an associate professor of sociology at McGill University. He is the author of Lineages of Despotism and Development (2009) and co-editor of States and Development (2005) and Oxford Handbook on the Transformation of States (forthcoming).

• 1. Introduction: education and ethnic violence; 2. Education and ethnic violence: a theoretical framework; 3. Testing the impact of education on ethnic violence; 4. Education and ethnic violence in Sri Lanka; 5. Education and ethnic violence in Cyprus; 6. Education and ethnic violence in the Palestinian territories, India, and sub-Saharan Africa; 7. Education and ethno-nationalist conflict in Canada and Germany; 8. Education and ethnic violence: conclusions and implications.

'In this startling book, Matthew Lange presents new research showing how education in developing nations can raise the risk of ethnic violence. This is not because education teaches hatred - although in some places it does. Rather, the basic mechanisms of education, including competition, placing people in groups, and frustrating those who do not succeed either in school or after graduation, all aid ethnic mobilization and spur conflict in the context of multi-ethnic societies with a history of ethnic-based inequality. Lange provides both cross-national data and detailed case studies to back his conclusions. He makes it clear that education, though vital for developing nations to advance, needs to be rethought and reformed to ameliorate its common, though unintended, effects on ethnic mobilization. This is vital reading for everyone involved with politics and education in the developing world.' Jack A. Goldstone, Hazel Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University