Identichnost’ etnicheskikh men’shinstv v nauchnoi mysli Latvii v 1991-2014 gg.

Abstract

The article discusses the ways in which identities of ethnic minorities are represented in academic discourses of today’s Latvia. The author examines these discourses from the perspective of two traditions of looking at ethnic minority identities: from within the context of notions of nation and integrated national identity; and from the viewpoint of humanistic ideas of equality of the rights to have a unique social and ethnic identity. The author argues that it is the space of contemporary social research, rather than the dimension of political life, that opens up approaches toward liberal multiculturalism, which is the only acceptable methodological foundation for the democratic kind of relationship between the ethnic minorities and the ethnic-national majority.