Society Beyond StatisticsBook Review: Dyatlov V.I., Grigorichev K.V. (eds.) (2015) Etnicheskie rynki v Rossii: prostranstvo torga i mesto vstrechi [Ethnic Markets in Russia: the Space of Bargaining and Meeting], Irkutsk: IGU.

Abstract

Leonid Blyakher – Doctor of Science in Philosophy, Professor, Head, the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Pacific National University. Address: 136, Tikhookeanskaya  St., Khabarovsk, 680033, Russian Federation. E-mail: leonid743342@mail.ru

The book under review is one of the few recent books on ethnic migration that boasts interesting analysis. The context of recent social changes in Russia has rendered social forms  of migration a particularly important focus of study, precisely because of their intangibility and the lack of appropriate tools of measurement. Apart from the fact that ethnic communities generally avoid opening themselves to researchers, the difficulty of studying them is also connected with the fact that they call for a multidisciplinary approach. This is not solely an economic phenomenon, although such communities tend to maintain self-sufficiency. Neither is it only a social phenomenon, although it is immersed in a dense array of social connections. Rather it is a peculiar syncretic entity, in which the economy, culture and society are inseparably intertwined. It demands not only specific optics, but also a redefinition of the object of study. This challenge is successfully tackled in the book, which thoroughly investigates the phenomenon of ethnic markets in Russia by drawing on a series the ethnographic studies carried out in cities of Siberia and the Russian Far East.