[more detailed description than below]
Borders are institutions of inter-state divisions. In the Caucasus, they are until today highly contested. These borders play an important role in the nationalist agendas of the South Caucasian countries as excluding and insurmountable barriers in the local landscapes. At a closer look at the border regions, however, the situation is quite different. Borders villages on both sides maintain intensive contacts and more often than not find a modus operandi in economic and social relations even in areas of latent conflict.
The aims of this research project for students are – first – to study these relationships that are transgressing borders and facilitate interethnic contacts between border villages in the conflict-torn social landscape of the Southern Caucasus. By focusing on trans-border contacts, a topic closely related to the conflicts in the region, we want to enter into a discussion about the political and historical formation of current conflicts by focusing on specific empirical phenomena that transgress conflicts from below.
Secondly, the reflection of the research process itself will be a central element of our project. There will be joint preparations, joint research and joint analyses of their projects by the multinational student groups. Through the experience of in-group discussions among participants with different citizenships, perspectives and possibly different interpretations of the research data, the students will reflect on these differences, on the limitations of the own interpretative frames and the possible explanatory power of alternative interpretations. This analytical process will be supervised by experienced scholars who will guide the students and support the development of shared frames of reference which will be a first step to transgressing conflicts from below and to developing a shared understanding of differences and similarities.
In November 20111 we organised a first symposium on the importance of an anthropological perspective in order to understand conflicts and its prevention. With this application we want to focus more concretely on anthropological research on the ground. Our positive experience from the collaboration with the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian student groups has led us to design a research project especially for them. 20 students from the three South Caucasus states and Germany will be trained in local ethnography, anthropological methodology and in planning a research project which then will be implemented, evaluated and discussed. Three student research teams will study in border regions of the South Caucasus how borders influence human behaviour and how people adapt to borders and even manipulate them.
The key aspect of the student research will be to describe the porousness of borders through a focus on cross-border social relations. Our main hypothesis that will be tested on the ground is that trans-border contacts are transgressing conflicts from below. Even if signs of tension are continuously present in the borderlands, the local population often does not conceive the border as an impermeable institution. Transgression of borders happens for example through trade by which people are estab-lishing economic contacts that might lead to deeper social relations.
The research projects will be located at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border (#1), at the Azerbaijani-Georgian border (#2) and in the borderlands to Abkhazia (#3). The workshop will be held in Akhaltsikhe, a little town in the south of Georgia in a region with an Armenian majority population.
Sites of Research
#1: Province of Tavush (Armenia) at the Armenian-Azerbaijani Border: This remote area in the North-east of Armenia at the border with Azerbaijan is witnessing trans-border contacts of the local population despite the difficult relations on the national level. The research will be conducted in villages in close proximity to the border. This region was selected for reasons of security – trans-border contacts cannot be investigated close to the conflict zone around Karabakh.
#2: Red Bridge at the border of all three South Caucasian States: this is the most important and busiest border post between Azerbaijan and Georgia, which is also close to the Armenian border. After the closure of a large border market in 2006, economic and social relation continue to transgress borders as the markets in Georgia are important sources for revenues for traders from Azerbaijan.
#3: Enguri Bridge (Abkhazian borderland): Research will be conducted among the border dwellers that are using the bridge for economic and social contacts. Although the Abkhazian border with Georgia is relatively closed there is lively border traffic. The research team will be based in Zugdidi.
Workshop in Akhaltsikhe
The students will be prepared for their research in a preparatory workshop in Ak-haltsikhe. There, experts will introduce them to the ethnographic specificities of the areas of research. A central aspect will be the methodological preparation and the development of a fieldwork program. The students will prepare for the workshops in their home universities based on a reader compiled by the experts.
The students’ research will be organised in three groups. Each of these groups will consist of around 8 students and 4 accompanying researchers. Each group will have a minibus at their disposition. Fieldwork will be conducted according to the previously developed research design. One important point of the research will be regular group meetings for the evaluation of the daily progress.
The concluding workshop will take place again in Akhaltsikhe. The groups will have two days to review their material and link it to their initial hypothesis or main questions. Each group will be allocated three hours for presenting its research and discussing it with the other participants. The concluding workshop ends with a detailed feedback of the accompanying researchers concerning the research process and its results.
