Minorities At Risk (MAR) is a university-based research project that monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of 283 politically-active communal groups in many countries throughout the world from 1945 to 2006. Those minorities included have been deemed politically significant, meaning that the group collectively suffers or benefits from systematic discriminatory treatment at the hands of other societal groups and the group is the foundation of political mobilization and collective action in defense or promotion of self-defined interests. MAR seeks to identify where the groups are located, what they do, and what happens to them. The project is designed to provide information in a standardized format that aids comparative research and contributes to the understanding of conflicts involving relevant groups. The MAR project was initiated by Ted Robert Gurr in 1986 and has been based at the University of Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) since 1988.
Dataset and requirements
Scholars have found the dataset useful for studying ethnic protest, mobilization, and rebellion; however, it does not include all minority groups across the world.
1. Ethnonationalist: regionally concentrated peoples with a history of organized political autonomy with their own state, traditional ruler, or regional government who have supported political movements for autonomy at some time since 1945.
2. Indigenous: conquered descendants of earlier inhabitants of a region who live primarily in conformity with traditional social, economic, and cultural customs that are sharply distinct from those of dominant groups.
3. Ethnoclass: ethnically or culturally distinct, usually descended from slaves or immigrants, most of whom occupy a distinct social and economic stratum or niche.
4. Communal Contender: culturally distinct peoples, tribes, or clans in heterogeneous societies who hold or seek a share in state power.
-Disadvantaged: subject to some degree of political, economic, or cultural discrimination but lack offsetting advantages
-Advantaged: those with political advantage over other groups in their society
-Dominant: those with a preponderance of both political and economic power
5. Religious Sect: communal groups that differ from others principally in their religious beliefs and related cultural practices, and whose
political status and activities are centered on the defense of their beliefs.
6. National Minority: segments of a trans-state people with a history of organized political autonomy whose kindred control of an adjacent state, but who constitute a minority in the state in which they reside.
Phases
There are five phases completed thus far for the dataset. Phase I covered 227 communal groups, which met the criteria for classification as a minority at risk for the years 1945–1990; Phase II covered 275 groups from 1990–96; Phase III covered 275 groups from 1996–1999; Phase IV covered 283 groups from 1998–2003; and phase V covered 283 groups from 2003–2006. Also available is the Minorities at Risk Organizational Behavior (MAROB) which began in 2005 with the purpose of answering fundamental questions focusing on the identification of those factors that motivate some members of ethnic minorities to become radicalized, to form activist organizations, and to move from conventional means of politics and protest into violence and terrorism.
How it is coded
The data is coded by-hand by undergraduate and graduate students under the direct supervision of directors. The information is culled from a variety of sources; journalistic accounts, government reports, group orgs, scholarly material. Coders rely upon multiple sources for each code assigned as often as possible. Variables are broken down into four categories: Group Characteristics, Group Status, External Support, and Group Conflict Behavior. For all of the phases, there are a varying number of variables for which have been coded. Phase V includes 71 core variables and 282 groups. There are codebooks for every phase of recorded data. The variables range from descriptive traits referring to their population and location in the world, to their active protests and rebellions, to the discriminatory practices that affect them. The data allows viewers to see trends by years, country, or conflict.