| Summary/Abstract |
The article examines the small group of Dungan people in Osh, South Kyrgyzstan, who used their ethnic identity as a strategy to maximize their chances of survival by orienting themselves towards different available dominant groups (Uzbeks and Kyrgyz) at different points in time, in contrast to similar Dungan groups in other places. Unlike existing research that suggests that ethnic switching derives from an individual’s need, this study conceptualizes the notion of ethnicity as a collective choice through a conceptual framework combining the relational theory of ethnic identity based on a psychological approach and its key concepts such as accessibility, fit, variation and flexibility.
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