The Research Network for Latin America is an association of historical, anthropological, cultural and sociologcal institutions of the Universities of Cologne, Bielefeld, Bonn, Münster and Hanover (see structure). In their interdisciplinary project collaboration, humanists, regional and social scientists use the concepts of ethnicity, citizenship and belonging to scientifically describe the historically specific and context-dependent forms of symbolic boundaries and ideas of order and belonging in various regions of Latin America.
The analytical content of the concepts of ethnicity, citizenship and belonging result from its meaning in the everyday life of actors. We also understand the analyzed ideas of delimitation and belonging as communicatively conveyed, putting interactions, negotiation processes, media and discourses in a complex interrelationship with social structures.

Ethnicity:

Ethnicity describes a socially constructed phenomenon, in which collective self-attributions and attributions by others are used in delimitation to one another. The actors use different cultural practices or recur to different features to consciously distinguish themselves from others. It is a dynamic concept that is used to classify people into categories. One of the most important reference points in the different semantics of the ethnic is the idea of a common origin (similar to M. Weber).
In the past as well as in present Latin American societies, socio-economic inequality is not only influenced by such ethnic categorizations, but co-determines them significantly. Since the time of colonial rule, ethnic categorization (the sistema de castas) was one of the most important mechanisms of social ordering. In many regions the Spaniards separated the indigenous inhabitants spatially and socially from the rest of the population. The structures set up by the Spaniards, which shaped the Latin American society over the span of over three centuries, continued to live on in many places even after the colonial rule fell and still influences the social formations of many states. At the same time, political participation rights are – at least since the colonial period – implicitly organized along ethnic categories. Thus, in Latin America they represent an important resource that can be used by different actors, such as indigenous movements, to obtain their goals. The attempt to invalidate (post-) colonial economic and political exclusion along this category, in turn, reinforces the ethnicization of politics, which led some Latin American societies, such as Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, in recent times, to define themselves explicitly as “multi-ethnic”. Since the 19th century a "scientific" concept of race was used to distinguish population groups in Latin America. However, unlike in the U.S., the positive impact of mixing the supposed "races" as a counter-concept to their strict separation was propagated as well (e.g. "la raza cosmica" by J. Vasconcelos in Mexico). Nevertheless, the populations of African and indigenous offspring were often regarded as inferior by the Creole-mestizo elites –- excluding them from citizenship in whole or in part. The argument of ethnic belonging, which was increasingly promoted by indigenous movements since the 1970s, remains central to questions of political, social and cultural participation.

Citizenship:

The Research Network analyzes the reformulations of the political commonwealth that occurred repeatedly along Latin American history. Furthermore, the  Network also explores the debate about political concepts of order and their changes regarding to the configurations of citizenship. This concept describes a historically specific set of civil, political and social rights and obligations (T.H. Marshall). The triad has meanwhile been supplemented by a number of cultural rights and obligations. At the same time, citizenship denominates the constant negotiation process about this set of rights and obligations between political institutions with hegemonial claims, individuals and groups.
Citizenship is thus a dynamic concept: both the rights and obligations which it entails, and the question of who benefits to what extent from civic inclusion (even beyond the formal legal status) were and are subject to ongoing changes. These negotiations refer to an understanding of the state, primarily of European-Republican provenance, which formally bestows all citizens as individuals the same rights and duties and thus establishes membership to a political community, excluding non-citizens. These rights and obligations are based on specific imaginaries of community, as well as the respective basic principles of social inclusion. De facto, the access of individuals and groups to those rights in different (historical) phases has not been the same, but the expression of different positions of power. Even the newly gained sovereignty, achieved through the independence struggles in the early 19th century, could not bring about fundamental changes. The liberal promise, for example, of formally equal citizenship rights for all "citizens" obscures existing asymmetric power relations. Civil rights can thus establish loyalty to an "imagined community" (B. Anderson) and strengthen social cohesion. Since the establishment of national states in Latin America, these different constructions of the respective national identity groups favor specific social groups and disadvantage others. The extension of civil rights onto members of other, for example ethnic, groups is subject to constant negotiation processes. The post- / or trans-national understanding of citizenship as well as recent claims concerning ethnic or cultural citizenship debunk the concept of uniform membership as an unfulfilled promise, while undermining it at the same time, by looking for alternatives to a state-centered model of citizenship. It is evident that especially indigenous actors and movements actively contribute own ideas of order of society to the political discourse (Ciudadanía indígena, cultural citizenship).
Migration research, too, employs an extended definition of citizenship, which emanates from quotidian living actions, political initiatives and negotiation processes of those who are excluded from political participation possibilities (e.g. voting), for being so-called non-citizens. Hereby, spatial boundary-marking and reference points, like nation and continent, are transcended to promote the study of transregional and transnational activities, which dominate the social interactions in a globalized world.

Belonging:

Ideas and concepts of the term belonging vary both in everyday and in scientific use. A first scientific reading of the term implies forms of belonging that are used as self- or external attribution, as a desire or claim to belong. As such, belonging is used as a kind of meta-concept, which involves other social categorizations, such as citizenship or ethnicity. These formal or otherwise legitimated memberships also constitute an affiliation (belonging) to a group. It is then possible to infer from these collective belongings processes of inclusion and exclusion related to groups, no matter if they are socially constructed or legally assigned (such as a nationality). It can also be investigated how power relations contribute to the definition of social boundaries or political units that impede belonging and thus produce exclusion (“politics of belonging").
This contrasts with an understanding of belonging that derives from the bonding of individuals to their natural and social environment. This understanding of belonging stresses multiple and convertible bonds beyond normative conceptions of order. These situational and multiple bonds, which may be of social, material and sensual nature, are subjected to a continuous process of change and are constantly re-articulated and re-negotiated in the day-to-day activities and experiences of the actors. In such a reading, belonging overrides any form of legal legitimacy and regulation, and comes into being as a result of events and through individual life stories. Especially in times of global networks and constant exchange, the concept indicates the compatibility of different conceptions of belonging and thus stresses the permeability and not the establishment of social boundaries. In addition, this understanding of belonging as being relational and contextual, opens up the possibility to go beyond the analysis of social phenomena and to integrate both the related spatial and historical dimensions.
This can be observed especially in the context of researching transnational movements, migration and trans-locality. In this context, belonging reflects the complex relationships that individuals have with different locations, multiple realities and changing social and political landscapes. According to Anthias, belonging can be placed at the interface between the social position that is assigned to an individual as part of the social order, and their own positioning within society. The combination of structural and actor-oriented migration research is a promising starting point to work out the tension between the rather essentialist positions of belonging, such as the primordial idea of belonging to an ethnic group or nation, and ideas of multiple bonds that take into account the alteration and the breakup of normative social orders.

The three key concepts of the Research Network address the worldwide central key issues of social inclusion and exclusion. Research about these issues is conducted nationally and internationally in the studies of politics, economics, sociology and anthropology as well as in history, cultural sciences and linguistics. However, interdisciplinary exchange has been rather limited so far, primarily due to lack of institutional platforms and networks for scientific dialogue on research on Latin America. One aim of the Research Network for Latin America is to overcome this shortage, to bundle the existing expertise on Latin America and to consolidate it structurally.
Another objective of the Research Network is the joint development of cross-disciplinary theoretical approaches to the key terms.
To this end, the subprojects analyze a number of interrelated case studies, systematically employing approaches of the respective (not just Latin American) theories of ethnicity, citizenship and belonging, bringing them into a new focus. The aim is to broaden – not only regionally – specific knowledge with the theoretical and methodological work on the basis of individual case studies, but also to provide impetus for the thematic discussion on these concepts. In addition to the overarching theoretical research questions, the dialogue on methods employed will be in focus of attention. The same phenomena are studied by the project members with regards to/on the basis of communication, discourse and media analysis, participant observation, biographical interviews and network analysis, analysis of historical sources and the conceptual history. This actor's perspective is put into a reciprocal relationship with social structural categories, using quantifying structurally descriptive approaches. In this context, it should be discussed, how the problem areas can be modeled from the standpoint of the different disciplines and which concepts can be "translated" profitably. More systematic and largely historic-cultural studies-oriented disciplines can complement each other in a way that until now could only be found rudimentarily in research on Latin America.

The sub-projects of the Research Network – in spite of their specific focus – are unified by the analysis of social and cultural difference and affiliation criteria, their etiology, mechanisms and consequences. The involved social inclusion and exclusion processes are influenced by a variety of factors. The working groups deal with these various factors in three sub-projects. In the first sub-project, the question is raised, how inclusion and exclusion are communicated in the political arena, and which factors have an impact on this communication. The second sub-project deals with the political and social space by means of the example of migration and translocal relations. Through the application of a relational and procedural concept of space, this sub-project examines on the one hand the importance of local-material bonds for the self-conception of migrants, and on the other hand, deals with the relevance of informal actions in a labor market that is increasingly uncertain and marginalized. The third sub-project examines the interdependencies of ethnicity and citizenship with other social categorizations like class, gender and age. The sub-project Hanover analyzes primarily ethnic attributions in their interaction with socio-economic and political changes. The sub-project Munster finally examines the historical development of citizenship for the population of indigenous and African origin in Mexico in transition from colonial times to the modern constitutional state.