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Ethnic Entrepreneurs and Collective Violence: Assessing Spatial Variations in Anti-Chinese Rioting within Jakarta during the May 1998 Riots

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  • Suranjan Weeraratne

Abstract

The concept of scapegoating is frequently used to explain how opportunistic elites attempt to deflect blame onto vulnerable ethnic minorities, particularly during times of social turmoil. However, the notion of scapegoating is undertheorized in the conflict literature and the question of why elite scapegoating only sometimes leads to violence is seldom addressed. This paper seeks to redress the balance by interrogating spatial variations in violence against the economically dominant ethnic Chinese in Indonesia within the city of Jakarta in the late 1990s.

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  • Suranjan Weeraratne, 2010. "Ethnic Entrepreneurs and Collective Violence: Assessing Spatial Variations in Anti-Chinese Rioting within Jakarta during the May 1998 Riots," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-055, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2010-055
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