The Use and Misuse of the “Minorities at Risk” Project

The “Minorities at Risk” (MAR) project and data have offered an innovative, systematic view of communal and ethnic groups. By collecting detailed information on groups that are mobilized and/or discriminated against, and thus “at risk,” MAR has allowed researchers to offer new insights in many areas dealing with relationships among groups. However, scholars have also used this dataset in ways for which it was not designed or is hardly appropriate. This article offers an overview of the main contributions of MAR and identifies research questions for which the MAR data have to be used with care.