Borders from Below. Processes of Re- and De-Bordering within the Post-Soviet Space

Unter dem Titel „Borders from Below. Processes of Re- and De-Bordering within the Post-Soviet Space“ fand vom 29.11.2018 bis 30.11.2018 in Berlin ein mehrtägiger Workshop statt. Dieser beschäftigte sich mit grenzüberschreitenden Interaktionen und analysierte unterschiedliche Grenzsituationen nach dem Zusammenbruch der kommunistischen Sowjetunion. Das Ende der Sowjetunion führte zur Entstehung mehrerer postsowjetischer Staaten, die auf den Territorien der ehemaligen Sowjetrepubliken beruhen. Zusätzlich entstanden so genannte De-facto-Staaten, beispielsweise Abchasien in Georgien oder Transnistrien in Moldau. Diese Entwicklungen zogen eine Reihe neuer Grenzen nach sich, die nur teilweise internationale Anerkennung erfahren. 

The workshop focused on borders and cross-border interactions from the perspective of people living in border regions. Its aim was to analyse various border situations after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which led to new borders but also to changes in the nature of borders in the post-Soviet space.
The workshop addressed how borders are imagined, perceived, and produced, both by local people living in border regions and by various other actors on different levels. Borders are understood as socially constructed and permanently “made” (the act of bordering) and changed (re- and de-bordering). Even though the perspective “from below” was highlighted, attention was also directed towards the perspectives of different actors on other scales.

Den Tagungsbericht von Sabine v. Löwis für H-Soz-Kult können Sie hier weiterlesen.

Konferenzübersicht:

Public Lecture
Tatiana Zhurzhenko (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna): Between State of Exception and Everyday Banality: Precarious Borders in the Post-Soviet Space

Beate Eschment / Sabine von Löwis (both Zentrum für Osteuropa und internationale Studien (ZOiS), Berlin) / Carolin Leutloff-Grandits (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, Frankfurt an der Oder): Welcome and Introduction

Panel 1 – “Contested” Borders
Moderator: Beate Eschment (Berlin)

Anton Gritsenko (Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow / Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad): Local Actors in Contested Border Realities: Northern Crimea and the Russian Part of Donbass after 2014

Saodat Olimova (Independent Research Centre Sharq / Oriens, Dushanbe): Transborder Informal Integration Vs. Disintegration: How People in the Border Regions of the Fergana Valley Live

Discussion Input: Sophie Lambroschini (CMB, Berlin)

Panel 2 − De Facto Borders
Moderator: Sabine von Löwis (Berlin)

Ketevan Khutsishvili (Tblisi State University): Crossing the De Facto Borderlines between the Gali and Zugdidi Municipalities

Mikhail Klyuchnikov / Nikita Turov (both Moscow State University): Transnistria: Life Despite the Conflict Borders

Discussion Input: Daria Isachenko (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, Frankfurt an der Oder)

Panel 3 – “External” Borders
Moderator: Carolin Leutloff-Grandits (Frankfurt an der Oder)

Rita Sanders (University of Cologne): Farming beyond Borders: Economic Activities, Adventuresomeness and Daily Boundary Crossings of ‘Western’ Farmers in Russia’s Exclave of Kaliningrad

Tobias Holzlehner (University of Halle an der Saale): Subversive Economies: Informal Trade in a Russian-Chinese Borderland

Discussion Input: Vladimir Kolosov (Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow / Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad)

Final Discussion
Moderator Beate Eschment (Berlin)

Discussion Input: Vladimir Kolosov (Moscow / Kaliningrad) / Carolin Leutloff-Grandits (Frankfurt an der Oder) / Sabine von Löwis (Berlin) / Tatiana Zhurzhenko (Vienna)

Book Presentation
Vladimir Kolosov (Ed.): Russian Border Regions: Neighbourhood Challenges, Moscow 2018.