Studying Border Regions in the Post-Soviet Space – Different Methods, Scales and Areas

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Studying Border Regions in the Post-Soviet Space – Different Methods, Scales and Areas

Veranstalter
Beate Eschment and Sabine v. Löwis (Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien/Centre for East European and International Studies, ZOiS); in Cooperation with Ketevan Khutsishvili (Tbilisi State University, Georgia)
Veranstaltungsort
Tbilisi State University
Ort
Tbilisi
Land
Georgia
Vom - Bis
26.11.2019 - 28.11.2019
Website
Von
Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien (ZOiS)

First, we would like to address different methodological approaches in studying border regions. While in a first workshop a year ago we collected case studies that approached border regions mainly from below, we will now complete the picture and discuss different methodo-logical perspectives, as how to study border regions from a citizen science perspective, with quantitative data analysis, with practice approaches, in historical or institutional perspective. We would like to select case studies that analyse border regions from different perspectives on the post-Soviet space and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different discipli-nary and methodological approaches to “best” picture the “reality” of border regions.

Second, we will address issues of studying controversial borders. Some post-soviet borders carry not only potential for conflict as consequence and legacy of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the new ordering of the post-soviet space into independent states. Moreover, the analysis of these border regions carries potential conflict for researchers studying it. For example, border regions as the De-facto border between annexed Crimea and Ukraine can researched in its completeness not in one person due to the very difficult political situation. Another border region difficult to study is the current border region between Russia and Ukraine in the zone of uncontrolled territories. We could list many more border regions in the Caucasus or Central Asia, as the situation of exclaves in the Fergana Valley.

Questions evolve as how local and external researchers can approach the controversial border regions or what information different researcher gain with the respective different results. Moreover, questions of objectivity and subjectivity arise. That being a permanent question of reflective researchers, the question becomes in controversial study contexts more prevalent as well as ethical questions.

Programm

26/11/2018 // Day 1 //
9 – 9.30 a.m.
Welcome and Introduction
Beate Eschment (ZOiS), Ketevan Khutsishvili (TSU, Georgia), Sabine v. Löwis (ZOiS)
9.30 – 11.30 a.m.
Panel 1: Scale, History and Concepts of Borders
Chair: Beate Eschment (ZOiS)
Ilkka Liikanen (Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland):
Approaching shifting scales and concepts of borders: East and West of bordering (former) empires and their substructures.

Sabine v. Löwis (ZOiS):
Phantom Borders – A heuristic model to study how past borders and orders structuring today’s world.

11.30 – 1 p.m.
Lunch Break

1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Panel 2 – Territorial Dynamics and Spatial Data
Chair: Sabine v. Löwis (ZOiS)

Ariane Bachelet (University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, RAS, Institute of Geography, Moscow):
Territorial Dynamics in the Caucasus: the Questions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Telmo Menezes (CMB, Berlin):
Social Media, Networks and Geographical Data

3 p.m. – 3.30 p.m.
Coffee Break

3.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.
Panel 3 – Talking and Experiencing borders
Chair: Ketevan Khutsishvili (TSU, Georgia)

Nino Aivazishvili-Gehne (Ruhr-University Bochum)
Experiencing the border. Encountering the states: The Ingiloy at the Azerbaijani-Georgian borderland

Manuel Neubauer (University Vienna)
Citizen Science – Potential and challenges of a new approach to border studies

5.30 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Coffee Break
6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Keynote-Speech
Alexander Kukhianidze (TSU): Title (TBC)
Chair: Ketevan Khutsishvili (Tiblisi State University)

27/11/2018 // Day 2 //
09.30 – 11.30 a.m.
Panel 4: Border Practices in Central Asia in face of political transformations
Chair: Beate Eschment (ZOiS)
Asel Murzakulova:
Rethinking the meaning of neighborship: current dynamics in the Ferghana Valley borderlands

Henryk Alff (HNE Eberswalde):
Development hubs or peripheries? Agricultural change in the Kazakhstan-China borderlands

11.30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Lunch Break
1 – 2.30 p.m.
Roundtable 1
Ethics in Conflict /Border Research
by Beate Eschment and Ketevan Khutsishvili

2.30 – 3 p.m.
Coffee Break
3 – 4.30 p.m.
Roundtable 2
Ethics in Conflict /Border Research
by Beate Eschment and Ketevan Khutsishvili
4.30 – 5 p.m.
Short Coffee Break

5 - 6 p.m.
Final Discussion and Conclusions

6 – 7 p.m.
Break with some food

7 p.m.
Presentation of the Documentary
“I didn’t cross the border, the border crossed me” by Toma Chagelishvili
Discussion with the Director of the Documentary Toma Chagelishvili (TBC)
Moderation: Sabine v. Löwis

28/11/2018 // Day 3 //

Excursion to the Georgian-Russian Federation border (Larsi border).
More details will follow later; excursion depends on the weather and might be changed.

Joint Final Dinner – Location and Time to be determined

Kontakt

Dr. Sabine von Löwis, Senior Researcher, ZOiS
sabine.loewis@zois-berlin.de

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