Immigrant Enclaves, Ethnic Enclaves
Is a term reinvigorated by two brilliant sociologists: Alejandro Portes and Kenneth L. Wilson.
The term/concept refers to the marvelous construction of minority businesses into a tight
community of buyers and sellers who replicate the center economy in microcosm so that
the multiplier effect to their dollars is greatly enhanced. The ethnic enclave commonly
includes residences and meeting places but is foremost a community of businesses. The theory of ethnic enclaves led to important research that found minorities, especially immigrants, often pull themselves up when they work independently yet in concert with one another. The findings of enclave studies blew away the negativism of the preceding theory of middleman minorities. The idea that whites brought immigrants to the U.S. in order to destroy black communities was ridiculous but lasted several years in sociology. I discovered that the main promoter of that idea was also the head of the Communist Caucus. As enclave theory was increasingly adopted by sociologists, the Communist Caucus declined until eighteen years later only the chief was left standing.
To use these terms, cite their work:
Wilson, Kenneth L. and Alejandro Portes. 1980. "Immigrant Enclaves: An Analysis of the
labor Market Experiences of Cubans in Miami." American Journal of Sociology
86 (September): 295-319.
And/or, especially when using ethnic enclave economics:
Wilson, Kenneth L. and W. Allen Martin. 1982. "Ethnic Enclaves: A comparison of the Cuban
and Black Economies in Miami." American Journal of Sociology
88:1:135-160.
The term enclaves by itself was handled well by Mark Abrahamson in his book,
Urban Enclaves: Identity and Place in America.
1996. New York: St Martin's Press. To quote Abrahamson's introduction on page 1: "The
little worlds Park wrote about, when given the above clarifications, come very close
to constituting what we will refer to as enclaves. To use the term enclave
in this manner requires some broadening of its customary referents, though. In prior
writings it has most frequently been used to refer to ... ethnic minorities [working]
in economically self-contained ghettos such as Miami's Little Havana." Then with a
footnote, he cites Park's (1925) The City and Wilson and Martin (1982)
"... Economies in Miami."
Intellectual Property
"By now, perhaps all universities have the policy that protects faculty works such as products, performances, inventions, writings."
Protecting intellectual property has never been easy; we have to be our own watchdogs. If people seek to steal your intellectual property, alert them to your claim, allowing them to do the right thing. If they persist in the larceny, order them to cease and desist, and be prepared to fight. Note however that with the unauthorized appropriation of urbanicity and ethnic enclaves, along with its variants, most of the uses have not been harmful (like the "enclave" car), but people who do not acknowledge their sources are less than perfectly honest.
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