Editing Ethnocentrism (section)

== Ethnocentrism in social sciences ==
[[File:William_Graham_Sumner_(1907).jpg|thumb|William Graham Sumner]]
In social sciences, ethnocentrism means to judge another culture based on the standard of one's own culture instead of the standard of the other particular culture.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Barbara D. |title=Cultural Anthropology |date=2013 |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-0-205-26001-0 |page=23 }}</ref> When people use their own culture as a parameter to measure other cultures, they often tend to think that their culture is superior and see other cultures as inferior and bizarre. Ethnocentrism can be explained at different levels of analysis. For example, at an intergroup level, this term is seen as a consequence of a conflict between groups; while at the individual level, in-group cohesion and out-group hostility can explain personality traits.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Öğretir |first=Ayşe Dilek |date=2008 |title=The Study Of Ethnocentrism, Stereotype And Prejudice: Psycho-Analytical And Psycho-Dynamic Theories |journal=Journal of Qafqaz University |volume=24 |pages=236–244 }}</ref> Also, ethnocentrism can help us to explain the construction of identity. Ethnocentrism can explain the basis of one's identity by excluding the outgroup that is the target of ethnocentric sentiments and used as a way of distinguishing oneself from other groups that can be more or less tolerant.<ref name="Elchardus Siongers 2007">{{cite journal |last1=Elchardus |first1=Mark |last2=Siongers |first2=Jessy |title=Ethnocentrism, taste and symbolic boundaries |journal=Poetics |date=August 2007 |volume=35 |issue=4–5 |pages=215–238 |doi=10.1016/j.poetic.2007.09.002 }}</ref> This practice in social interactions creates social boundaries, such boundaries define and draw [[symbolic boundaries]] of the group that one wants to be associated with or belong to.<ref name="Elchardus Siongers 2007"/> In this way, ethnocentrism is a term not only limited to anthropology but also can be applied to other fields of social sciences like sociology or [[psychology]]. Ethnocentrism may be particularly enhanced in the presence of interethnic competition, hostility and violence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cashdan |first1=Elizabeth |title=Ethnocentrism and Xenophobia: A Cross-Cultural Study |journal=Current Anthropology |date=December 2001 |volume=42 |issue=5 |pages=760–765 |doi=10.1086/323821 }}</ref> On the other hand, ethnocentrism may negatively influence expatriate worker's performance.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Caligiuri |first1=Paula |last2=Baytalskaya |first2=Nataliya |last3=Lazarova |first3=Mila B |title=Cultural humility and low ethnocentrism as facilitators of expatriate performance |journal=Journal of Global Mobility |date=14 March 2016 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=4–17 |doi=10.1108/JGM-03-2015-0007 }}</ref>

A more recent interpretation of ethnocentrism, which expands upon the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, highlights its positive dimension. Political sociologist Audrey Alejandro of the [[London School of Economics]] argues that, while ethnocentrism does produce social hierarchies, it also produces diversity by maintaining the different dispositions, practices, and knowledge of identity groups. Diversity is both fostered and undermined by ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism, for Alejandro, is therefore neither something to be suppressed nor celebrated uncritically. Rather, observers can cultivate a 'balanced ethnocentrism', (individual self worth) allowing themselves to be challenged and transformed by difference whilst still protecting difference.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alejandro |first1=Audrey |title=Western Dominance in International Relations?: The Internationalisation of IR in Brazil and India |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-69204-5 |pages=175–179 |oclc=1145913401 |doi=10.4324/9781315170480 }}</ref>