Koptseva, N. P., Kistova, A. V. Construction of Ethnocultural and National Identity as a Philosophical Problem

Abstract: In their article Koptseva and Kistova have touched upon the following topics and issues: Russian ethnocultural and national identities, mechanisms of construction of national identity, basic approaches to social construction of ethnic and national identity including concepts offered by Franz Boas, Ernest Gellner, Wilhelm Muhlman, Sergey Shirokogorov, Lev Gumilev and other philosophers, importance of the ethnographic approach and ‘interpretative hermeneutics’ of Wilhelm Dilthey for philosophical construction of Russian national identity, mechanisms of transformation of ethnocultural identity into national identity, representative cultural texts containing codes, signs and symbols that may initiative the processes of formation of Russian national identity when being perceived by a recipient, analysis of categories and concepts, ethnographic approach, Wilhelm Dilthey’s ‘interpretative hermeneutics’, integrative methodological strategy, Peter Berger’s and Thomas Luckmann’s theory of social construction and concepts of the symbolic production of ethnicity offered by Fredrik Barth, V. S. Malakhov and V. A. Tishkov. The authors have analyzed and classified the basic approaches to social construction of ethnocultural and national identity and offer their own integrative methodological strategy that combines the ethnographic approach and Wilhelm Dilthey’s ‘interpretative hermeneutics’. The authors have also described some mechanisms of construction of Russian national identity by the means of transformation of ethnocultural identity and proven the role of representative cultural texts in the process of formation of Russian national identity.

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