Cognitive Methods in the Social Sciences as a Way to Answer the Question of Relevance of Ethnic Classification: the Case of Moscow

In this paper, we turn to vernacular representations of social reality, namely the process of ethnic classification in Moscow, which is the focus of attention of various actors: from the state to city dwellers. Thus, the work corresponds to the principles of the current “cognitive turn” in ethnicity studies, where categories and the process of classification become the focus of attention, while revising the methodological approaches of existing studies. The aim of this paper is to develop and justify a methodological approach to the collection, analysis and generalization of everyday ethnic classifications of Moscow residents. To achieve this goal, video elicitation and classification walks were combined with conventional interviews, which made it possible to approach the level of everyday classification. To “test” the methodology, 41 interviews with Moscow residents with different ethnic and migration backgrounds were collected, which made it possible to describe the scheme of ethnic classification of city dwellers and to develop a “cognitivized” methodological solution for the implementation of this kind of tasks.