Elusive ethnicity

Review of the book «Social factors of interethnic tension in Russia»

Abstract

In line with the tradition established in the Russian school of ethnosociology, which considers social interactions, contradictions and conflicts through the prism of “inter-ethnic relations”, the central concept of the book here reviewed is “inter-ethnic tension”. To what extent is such a universalization of “ethnicity” justified as an explanatory mechanism of social processes?  What does it explain and what can it not explain? What is the result of absolutizing ethnicity as a property inherent in each individual and predetermining his belonging to a group? These and other issues are discussed in the review.