About the project
Fields of positive interethnic interactions and youth cultural scenes in the Russian cities
This interdisciplinary project aims to develop new theoretical and methodological approaches to the
conceptualization of the creative (positive) experience of interethnic cooperation in the youth cultural
scenes. This project will contribute to the development of a new conceptual apparatus (opposite to
dominated for the last decade approaches of multiculturalism and tolerance), required to describe the
positive experience of interethnic cooperation and the development of social technologies for
harmonization of multi-ethnic society.
In our project, we would like to make a special emphasis on the importance of studying youth cultural
scenes to identify creative patterns of interethnic and interconfessional cooperation. Youth cultural
scenes are a space for social innovation or conservation, for the formation of the tradition and creation of
the slogans of the revolution; here we can observe the harping, the binding, the overthrow of the different
social attitudes with understandable for young people language and with the use of reproducible cultural
markers. Scientific problem to be solved by the proposed project formulates as follows. What are the
social characteristics of youth cultural scenes that create the preconditions for the formation and
reproduction of the creative fields of interethnic interaction?
The problem chosen to be the focus of the project has a special relevance and scientific importance,
since it was located at the intersection of two major thematic fields. Modern societies are characterized
by the accelerating pace of the conflict differentiation and production of new boundaries, including
ethnically and religiously determined. Pinned by neoliberalization of economy,
multiculturalism/tolerance/political correctness policy crisis, increased social inequalities. These new
changes became a challenge for the social sciences, formulating a new agenda were the key question is
to find a new understanding of the theory and methodology of these transformations and the formation of
a new language and technologies of social policy for society harmonization, also to search for
compromise, reconciliation of opposing positions, creating new social and cultural conditions for positive
innovation. Similar objectives are also concern the research of ethnic and religious attitudes among
young people. The spread of all sorts of xenophobia and chauvinism, as well as an increase in the
number of conflicts and hate crimes in recent years in Russia has formed a different line of youth
extremism research. While there is a whole diversity of cultural forms of youth, from very specific to
mainstream (popular among a large number of young people), the justification of certain patterns of
perception of ethnic and religious topics occur, including the way being not problematized or having a
positive connotation. In our study, we plan to outline the entire spectrum of youth scenes and cultural
forms, and pay special attention to those where ethnicity plays a constructive role.
Scientific novelty of the project also consists in our reference to various youth cultural scenes in one
project to analyze the interethnic cooperation. This fact, as well as geographical diversity, will allow us to
compare different concepts of ethnicity and religiosity among the different categories of youth culture.
During the project implementation a methodology of empirical social research of creative interethnic
cooperation spaces among youth will be developed and tested as an empirical research in four Russian
cities. Young people of 18-22 years of age (college students, special schools, universities) will be an
object for our research. Research will be provided in Kazan, Makhachkala, Saint-Petersburg and
Ulyanovsk. Such cities composition will allow us to describe and typologize the diversity of interethnic
cooperation in the youth cultural scenes, as well as describe the positive examples of their location
(public spaces and public communities), and social values (solidarity) foundation. Methods of empirical
research: a questionnaire in colleges and universities (3200 respondents); Focus-groups (16 in total);
interviews with young people (ethnic minority representatives) (120 interviews); expert interviews (20
interviews); case study (8 cases).
The foreseen object achievement is guaranteed by the fact that the proposed project team has many
years of experience in large-scale sociological researches, and also active in the development of theory
and methodology in youth, ethnic and religious studies. Innovative element of the project is the
preparation of a sociological film based on the project. The film can be used for educational purposes as
well as for the promotion of ideas of positive interethnic interaction. In frames of the project 4 articles in
peer-reviewed journals will be prepared, collective monograph, analytical materials for practitioners, 3
seminars will be held, the project web page will be developed and the results of the study will be
presented at international and national conferences. All this will help to disseminate the results of the
project as much as possible both in academic circles and among specialists in the field of interethnic
relations among the young people