Ethnicity as a Social Resource and a Constraint: the Case of Ethnic Communities in Krasnodar Region

Abstract

Kseniya Grigor’eva – Candidate of Science in Sociology, Researcher, Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Address: bld. 5, 24/35, Krzhizhnovskij St., Moscow, 117218, Russian Federation. E-mail: ksenia.grig@mail.ru

Depending on the social context ethnicity can be viewed both as a constraint, and a resource to gain social, economic and political benefits. This article analyses various strategies to exploit ethnic identity and reveals the factors which determine the choice of particular strategies by ethnic communities by drawing on the case of the Krasnodar region. In particular, the focus is on the discourse used by the representatives of different ethnic communities to gain advantages over others, the practices of ethnic protectionism and ethnic lobbying, the abandonment of these practices altogether in favour of assimilation with the ethnic majority, and the influence of the political context on the choice of certain practices. To understand the mechanisms that transform ethnic identity into a specific type of social resource we rely on Bourdieu’s theory of capital (and particularly the notions of social, economic, political and symbolic capitals and their conversion). The article is based on the results of the study “Forecasting modelling of interethnic relations in Russian regions (on the basis of the identification strategies used by ethnic communities residing beyond territories of respective nations)”. The empirical study uses data from 9 focus groups with the representatives of Armenian, Adyg (Circassian), Ukrainian, Greek, Tatar, Chechen, Dagestan, Tajik and Uzbek communities as well as 12 interviews with experts. The study reveals that the transformation of ethnicity into a resource is often the mirror of the obstacles a particular ethnic community face and serves as a way to surmount these obstacles. Using ethnicity as a resource requires substantial investments that may be material or intangible. Investments are made by rank-and-file representatives of ethnic communities and by high status persons, both at the individual and the group levels. Not everybody always uses his/her ethnicity as a resource. Integration with the ethnic majority is an alternative strategy. A lack of considerable external and cultural differences between representatives of the ethnic minority and majority promotes the selection of this strategy. Using ethnicity for getting preferences becomes possible when a differentiated approach to different ethnic groups is institutionalized and the emergence of a situation under which some groups occupy privileged positions while other groups are in the position of outsiders.