The Laboratory in Comparative Ethnic Processes (LiCEP) will conduct four biannual workshops on the theme of ethnic mobilization, nationalism and civil war. LiCEP is an inter-university research group that seeks to improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of ethnic mobilization through the systematic cross examination of formal theoretical models and empirical evidence. The substantive questions that LiCEP explores include: What are the conditions under which individuals participate in ethnic as opposed to non-ethnic collective action? What are the conditions that lead to large-scale rebellions against the state? When and why do inter-ethnic riots occur? How are inter- ethnic relations renegotiated in the aftermath of civil violence? What are the conditions under which ethnic mobilization takes the more "routine" forms in the form of ethnic voting and party formation? What is the impact that different forms of ethnic mobilization have on policy-making and processes of state consolidation? And how does ethnic mobilization interact with the process of identity formation itself? The principal goals of the workshops are to evaluate lab-generated datasets, reverse engineer statistical, formal and agent-based models, and bring formal models into more direct interaction with empirical evidence.
