Ethnicity Conflicts and Nationalism in the Former Soviet Union Countries

The objective of the paper is to discuss empirical research and findings (2012-2015) as well as theoretical and methodological frames of studying nationalism and ethnic conflicts that were discussed during a number of summer schools developed by InterComCenter in 2005-2010

On the basis of socio-political analysis, current sociological and anthropological theories the paper will identify the patterns and underlying causes of success and failure in market making and its interlinkages to growing wave of ethnical tensions and conflicts between nations and inside one nation.  Economic transformations undertaken by nation-elites in Eastern and Central Europe mostly under the banner of 'Europeanization'/ ‘Westernization’ have largely disregarded the role ethnic relations have played in the socio-economic development and the evolution of ethno-national identities during supra-national market integration in Europe. Better understanding of the logic of the evolution of ethnic identities and nationalistic issues in Eastern part of the continent, Caucasus and in Central Asia might contribute to the better understanding of the social and political regulations of new economic and political regimes and the developmental potentials of the European model of institutionalized or social capitalism.

The paper will consist of two distinct parts. Part one deals with theoretical and methodological discussion of how ethnicity and nationalism have been studied in the social sciences during the time of the USSR and aftermath. Part two is a discussion of empirical results and outcomes of the three field researches that was conducted in 2012-2015.