Cultural Diversity Management: Historical Models and Modern Practice in the Sphere of Ethnopolitical Regulation

This article provides a survey of a relatively new concept known as management of cultural diversity. The author outlines a definition of the concept in regards to the field of Public and Municipal administration. The concept of cultural diversity management is analyzed through its comparison with different political models such as melting pot, multiculturalism, and interculturalism. The article presents some key outcomes of the research realized in the project New approaches and methods of ethnopolitical relations regulation on the territory of the largest urban agglomerations of Russia and based on the concept in question. In particular, the article evaluates the new Russian National Policy Strategy and focuses on the comparison of Russian and foreign experience in preventing, regulating and managing ethnic conflicts. Sociological research on interethnic relations conducted in three Russian cities, namely Ufa, Perm and Rostov-on-Don, shifts the focus from detecting existing conflicts to analyzing the causes of the conflict non-emergence and resolution, as well as describing the mechanisms of interaction between different ethnic or local groups. Moreover, the city is seen as an object and subject of national policy.The research shows that in the Post-Soviet era the importance of vertical conflicts to the federal centre confronting Russian republics has signifi cantly decreased, while that of horizontal, i.e. inter-group, conflicts has gradually increased. However, this new situation has not been fully reflected in theory and practice of governance. The present article is aimed to fill this gap, based on the results of the above-mentioned research, and provides some propositions in order to improve the methodological grounds of national policy.