Knowing Ethnicity

Samantha Balaton-Chrimes is an associate professor in politics at Deakin University. She is a political sociologist with sixteen years' experience conducting research on ethnicity, marginalisation and politics in Kenya and other postcolonial societies. Balaton-Chrimes is the author of Ethnicity, Democracy and Citizenship in Africa (2015) and has published more than twenty articles and book chapters.

• Introduction: cultivated vagueness and ethnic classification in Kenya; 1. Making ethnicity; 2. Mapping ethnic territory; 3. Counting ethnic populations; 4. Registering the ethnic citizen; 5. Recognising ethnic minorities and marginalised communities; Conclusion: ethnic classifications in a digital future; Appendix 1. Ethnic categories in Kenyan censuses; References; Index.

'Few researchers and fewer policy makers realise that the most serious danger lurking in African states' growing administrative capacity to identify and track their citizens is the development of a permanent architecture of ethnicised citizenship. Sam Balaton-Chimes' Knowing Ethnicity is the best account of why this happened and what is at stake in reproducing it.' Keith Breckenridge, Wits University