METHODOLOGY OF ETHNO-SOCIAL RESEARCH: ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN AND KAZAKH EXPERIENCE IN ETHNICITY RESEARCH

Abstract

In the article, based on a comparative analysis of the features of the methodological foundations of Kazakhstani and Western scientific discourses of research on ethnopolitical and ethnosocial processes, an attempt was made to apply a synthetic approach to the analysis of ethnicity and identities of the population of the South of Kazakhstan in the “bottom-up” direction. The synthetic approach used by the author of the article combines elements of primordialist and situationist approaches to the analysis of social space and values of rural communities. The object of the study was the opinions of respondents in auls, villages and small towns of compact and mixed ethnic groups living in Almaty, Zhambyl and Turkestan regions in order to identify strategies for ethnic identification of the population, their attitude towards other ethnic groups. The analysis is carried out on the basis of data from field sociological studies (focus group discussions) conducted in 2021-2022. employees of the project “Monitoring as a Method of Research and Forecasting the Dynamics of Ethno-Social Processes in the Republic of Kazakhstan” of the Institute of Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies of the RK CS MSHE. The author comes to the conclusion that the main methodological driver for the analysis of ethnopolitical problems should be the reorientation of research strategies to the study of “folk sociology”, situational and everyday cases that reflect the opinion of the Kazakh population “from below”. At the end of the article, conclusions are formulated and scientific and theoretical recommendations are given.