Men, Women, … Tribes, Peoples: What Does a Person’s Life Look Like among His Constructs? (Part 1)

The article attempts to illustrate the explanatory possibilities of the theoretical and methodological program of social constructivism on the example of two areas of social life ‑ gender and ethno-national relations. Gender and ethnicity, identity and social group structures formed on gender and ethnic grounds are considered as products of social and historical development, as phenomena that are predominantly of social and cultural origin. Among other things, the ability of constructivist research optics to highlight the historical relativity and variability of systems of gender and ethnic relations, which often appear (in everyday consciousness and ideological discourse) as «natural», primordial facts, is demonstrated. At the same time, these relations tend to be reified, objectified and crystallized in sustainable forms of social institutions and culture.

social constructivism, gender, feminism, ethnicity, nation, primordialism, identity, stereotype, gender studies, sociology of ethnic and national relations