The goal of the book Ethnic Groups and Boundaries Today: A Legacy of Fifty Years is twofold in principle. On the one hand it aims to assess the theoretical approach presented in the original publication Ethnic Groups and Boundaries both in the context of its time, and with the hindsight of the developments in social sciences since then.
In this regard the focus will be on emphasizing of the legacy of the original text and determining its significance in the context of the social sciences. On the other hand the authors will identify and elaborate on the main lines of the subsequent developments of the concept of ethnicity that were in many regards conditioned by Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, but that have been further developed and overcame the original.