Ethnicity: theory and empirical studies

Timeframe: July 2021 - present

 

The project is the main one for the group at the moment. The project has an ambitious goal - to understand, based on interdisciplinary approaches and research, what ethnicity is, how it functions, and why, apparently, no society is free from ethnicity, despite the fact that in each of them it manifests itself differently. To achieve this goal, both theoretical and empirical studies are carried out. Within the framework of theoretical work, as a superstructure over existing constructivist languages, a modern theoretical language is being created. It allows one to describe ethnic phenomena in an optimal way. In empirical work, the emphasis is on describing the actual functioning of ethnic classifications (the case of Soviet Dagestani nationalities). In addition, exploratory pilot studies are underway in line with this agenda.

 

Publications

In English:

  1. Varshaver, E. (2023). Integration of Migrants Through the Lens of a Constructivist Approach to Ethnicity. RUDN Journal of Political Science, 25(2), 377-396. [in English]

In Russian:

  1. Varshaver, E., Ivanova, N., Gupalova, J., Kuznetsova, S. (2024). What Role do Soviet Nationalities Play in Regulatingthe Marital Behavior in Dagestan? Journal of Frontier Studies, (2), 98–133. [in Russian]
  2. Varshaver, E., Orlova A., Shulga, A. (2023). Documentary Constructivism as a Special Form of Constructivist Folk Sociology: Evidence from Dagestan. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, (6), 156–177. [in Russian]
  3. Bublikov, V., Varshaver, E., Stepanov, V. (2023). Deconstruction of Population Censuses: Comments and Considerations. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie, (4), 22–242. [in Russian]
  4. Varshaver, E. (2022). “Stop beating the dead primordial horse”: actual agendas in the constructivist research of ethnicity. The Russian Sociological Review, 21(3), 31-58. [in Russian]
  5. Varshaver, E. (2022). Trapped in Double-Irrelevancy: (Re)-Production of Ethnicity in Interactions between Census-Takers and Their Respondents Based on Results of Observations during 2021 All-Russian Census in Dagestan. Monitoring of Public Opinion: Economic and Social Changes, (4(170)), 199–221. [in Russian]
  6. Varshaver, E., (ed.) (2022). On Ethnic Diversity in Modern Dagestan: Students' field trip collection of articles. Authors: M. Gutsunaev, A. Drozdova, E. Kozharinova, A. Kunina, A. Malinovskiy, V. Nazarov, A. Rakacheva, D. Stepanova. Moscow: HSE Publishing House. [in Russian]