Edited by

Olga Brednikova, Elena Chikadze, Viktor Voronkov.

The book in front of you is the collection of papers chosen from the presentations delivered at the Conference on “Ethnicity and Economy in Post-Soviet Space”. Held in September 1999, the conference per se is an extremely important event. Unlikely Western countries, where studies of ethnic and migrant economy have long become a tradition, and their discourse has a certain history, Russia has witnessed the discussion of these vital global issues for the first time. At the same time the peculiarities of East-European society and its transitions make it necessary to introduce some changes into theoretical concepts, which were based on, the studies conducted in the West.

The papers presented at the conference have revitalized the discussion around such concepts as the entrepreneurial activity of some ethnic groups (“ trading minorities” according to Sombart), Veber’s cultural tradition in the research of ethnic entrepreneurship, the two approaches we believe to be out-of-date. The materials published in this book serve as a new impulse for the discussion of reactive cultural context (i.e. cultural components formed as a reaction to the new environment which legitimize the community members’ choices of coping strategies), as well as for further discussion of the reactive ethnicity theory (according to which all ethnic economy is the result of reactive ethnicity), and resource theory, which is rather popular in the West and which views all demographic, cultural, social and economic features of an ethnic group as its resources.

The articles comprising this book reflect a rather broad spectrum of research carried out in recent years. This holds true in respect to the issues of “ethnic economy” as it is (ethnic niches, complimentary economy), as well as other topics such as the connection between migrant economy and ethnicity, and entrepreneurial networking in autochthonous milieu, economy based community building, the existence of “trading minorities”, ethnic interactions in businesses and markets. The authors of presented papers have different theoretic views and use different approaches in their studies. At the same time it is obvious that the majority of them prefer by far quantitative sociological methods, which can’t but rejoice the hearts of the conference organizers – the stuff of the Centre for Independent Sociological Studies (CISS), which has been working in the mode of “understanding” sociology for a long lime.

The papers presented by the CISS reflect the research carried out in the framework of the project “People from the Caucasus in a big Russian City: Integration under the Condition of Xenophobia”¹

The project focused primarily on migrant economy, its formation and functioning, on the connection between entrepreneurial nets and ethnicity and on the relations of the people from the Caucasus with the hosting majority.

We express our profound gratitude to the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) and The K and J. MacArturs Foundation for supporting our conference. We are also grateful to the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) for its assistance in the publication of this book.

December, 1999

CONTENT

Viktor Diatlov. “Commercial Minorities” of the Foreign East: Some Approaches for the Ethnic Conflicts Study in the Modern Russia

Sergei Àbashin. Ethnicity Concepts and Economic Strategies in the Central Asian Community

Natalya Kosmarskaya. "Ethnicity" and "Career". Russian-speakers’ Economic Integration in Post-soviet Kirghizia

Viatcheslav Valitov. Ethnic Networks or Informal Relations

Andreas Kapphan. Russian Entrepreneurs in Berlin: The Role of Ethnicity and Opportunity Structures

Tsypylma Darieva. Managing Identity: Some Insights into post-Soviet Russian Language Media in Berlin

“CAUCASIANS IN PETERSBURG” (PROJECT OF CISR)

Victor Voronkov. Is there such a Thing as Ethnic Economy?

Olga Brednikova, Oleg Pachenkov. Ehnicity of “Ethnic Economy”: Economic Immigrants to St.Petersburg

Elena Chikadze, Sergei Damberg. Armenians in the Shoe Business of St-Petersburg

Oksana Karpenko. “These Guests Seem to Exercise Control over all Current Market Trade”: the Concept of “Ethnic Economy” in the Light of Russian Press

List of contributors

SERGEI ABASHIN, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Science,

OLGA BREDNIKOVA, Centre for Independent Social Research