Ethnicity as Social Fact and Symbolic Construction

Ethnicity is today a controversial concept in social sciences. The belonging to an ethnic group or the claims related to collective identity have a strong ideological charge. For many researchers in the social sciences, who practice the methodological individualism, ethnicity can be explained, but cannot be considered an explanatory factor. I will try to prove the opposite thesis by appealing to ethno-symbolism as legitimizing mechanism of identity feelings and collective rights. That's why I will explain how collective representations are structured, how myths and symbols that support the identity claims are formed and I will compare two types of nationalism: the ethnic nationalism and the civic nationalism. In conclusion, ethnicity is a social fact because it is a symbolic construction and a vital ingredient of the human condition and therefore can be used as a concept with explanatory value.