1

Ethnicity: about the Handbook

«Ethnicity is the term, which reproduces the qualitative characteristics of a

person or a group of people related to their ethnic origin, and that are to be found

in everyday life, culture, behaviour, and in general, in the mentality, confirming the

origin and distinguishing them among others. Often the term is used also to refer

to common ethnic, linguistic and cultural identity of groups of people». Such a

definition of ethnicity (as a phenomenon, as a concept, as the term) I propose in my

«Encyclopedic Handbook». Of course, it may be more extensive, more detailed.

Specialists, in particular sociologists, with which I feel to a certain extent identify,

are talking about the operationalization of the term – the working use of it in a

particular situations. However, seaking for the essence of the term I go back to the

experience of excellent researchers of ethnicity, multi-lingual Frederick Barth,

Julian Bromley, Georg Brunner, Dominique Bouchet, Nathan Glazer, Friedrich

Hekkman, Leokadiya Drobizheva, Leszek Korporowicz, Fred Riggs, Peter Rose,

Anthony Smith, Valeriy Tishkov, Joshua Fishman, Richard Schermerhorn etc.

In the Handbook under the umbrella term «Ethnicity» I propose 33 of its

varieties. I managed to find them in English, French, German, Greek, Italian,

Polish, Russian and Ukrainian professional ethnological, political, psychological,

sociological literature. Knowing these languages at a level which provides the

perception, understanding and a degree of penetration into the essence of the

phenomenon and its nuances, gives me the right to offer researchers, and just

readers (those who are interested in, or may in the future become interested in the

problems of ethnic aspects of life of modern human being), the interpretations of

ethnicity as a concept, as a term.

The main purpose of this publication, according to my plan, is the realization

of one more step on the way to fulfill my big project «Ethnicity in the modern

world», to grasp the significance of global phenomenon. Let me remind you that in

previous years I have prepared and published a number of publications in this

2

context, in particular under my direction – «Ethnic directory. In three parts»

(1997), «Ethnic communities of Ukraine: a Handbook» (2001), author of «the

Problems of ethnic and national development: the Ukrainian and global contexts»

(2001), «Ethnosocial processes in Ukraine: Possibilities of scientific

interpretations» (2004) «Ethnicity: Glossary» (2009), «Conceptual constructs of

ethonosocial realities: Three years research experience» (2010), «Ethnosociology:

a Handbook» (2011), «Socio-economic factors of development of regions in

ethnopolitical contexts» (2011) (see: http://yevtukh.info/en/avtorski-pratsi/).

I think that some comments about the ideas, objectives, content, structuring of

the edition will be useful to both professionals and those who wish to satisfy their

interest in the topics or the term of the plot, data and information from the field of

ethnicity. The idea is simple and obvious: to form an adequate idea of the

phenomenon of ethnicity and play its role in the modern world in general and its

impact on the development of the life of a person and of human communities. The

task is to disclose values (general and specific) of terms in order to introduce the

reader to the ethnic problems, and get him interested in it, to show the infinite

ethno-cultural diversification of the modern world and encourage to the fact that he

considered the pressing need to find ways and means to hold this world together.

The structure of the Handbook is deremined by several factors: 1) use of the

experience gained in the process of preparation of the two previous publications: a

more general «Ethnicity: Glossary», which contains 906 of terms, and a specialized

«Ethnosociology: a Handbook», where the interpretation of 739 concepts and

terms related to ethnosociological field of socio-humanitarian knowledge is given.

This Handbook, which I propose to call an encyclopedic (at least, it can be called

so) is concentrated in-depth interpretation of more than 1300 terms, personalities

and ideas, associated with the outlined clearly the subject of “ethnicity; 2) desire to

identify all available terms on the date, analyse them and submit their scope of

application; 3) attempt to reproduce the connection between the concepts and

terms.

3

So, all of the terms and concepts are discussed in an alphabetical (Ukrainian)

order; the complex, multidimensional phenomenon of ethnic issues are explained

focusing on one or another aspect of their meaning. This particularly refers to such

terms as «ethnicity» and «ethnic processes», «identity», «ethnic conflict»,

«nationalism», «community», «stereotype», etc.

The Handbook is provided with the list of literature, which, on the one hand,

gives the opportunity to provide the level of scientific interest and the degree of

study of the phenomenon of ethnicity, and on the other, shows foundation (of

course, in a part), on which the author's efforts to present to readers and researchers

the place of ethnicity in human life, human communities and in the development of

various societies are based.

Let me express the hope that the proposed edition will resonate with those

who is interested in ethnic issues, will awaken interest in the work over projects of

this sort.

Ukrainian version of the Handbook may be viewed following the link:

http://www.slideshare.net/yevtukh/2012-19981287