A critical look at Rogers Brubaker's cognitive constructivism

Abstract

The article examines the concept of ethnicity by Rogers Brubaker. The cornerstone of his position is the denial of ethnic groups as real societal groups. Brubaker identifies with post-structuralist constructivism, which has nothing to do with the constructivism of Berger and Lukman, and does not take into account the views of British left-wing historians who influenced Anderson's concept of “imaginary communities.” He rejects the widespread sociological understanding of a social group as a collection of people who recognize the existence of their group and their belonging to it. Ignoring the work of social psychologists, he suggests abandoning the concept of “identity” and instead exploring the process of “groupness,” which includes elements of psychology along with other, mostly subjective, moments and random events. In Russia, Brubaker's theory has aroused objections from a number of philosophers who characterize it as a kind of cognitive-linguistic constructivism that brackets the question of the presence of objective content in human knowledge. Brubaker's groupness is associated with “ethnic entrepreneurs” who form the agenda for involving people with similar cultural characteristics (language, religion, etc.) in activities to achieve the goals in which these entrepreneurs are interested. Brubaker doesn't explain where these kinds of activists come from, or why ordinary people are willing to follow them. Finally, he does not take into account that ethnic groups, along with instrumental ones, have expressive functions that are involved in the processes of socialization and cultural reproduction.