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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

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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.

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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