What is the canonical theory of assimilation?

✍ Scribed by Peter Kivisto

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 88 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5061
• DOI: 10.1002/jhbs.20013

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Throughout the past century, assimilation has been the hegemonic theory of ethnic group relations in
sociology, and Robert E. Park is generally considered to be the key figure associated with the articulation of
assimilation's canonical formulation. Based on a careful reading of Park's main essays on
assimilation, this article argues that those who associate his position with the melting pot (with its
assumption of the eradication of ethnic traits and ties), the race‐relations cycle, or a
straight‐line process of incorporation misconstrue his views. This article is in part corrective and in
part revisionist insofar as it is intended to indicate aspects of Park's theory that have particular
relevance to current sociological efforts to understand the implications of assimilation in multiethnic liberal
democracies. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.