Abstract
Introduction Olga Bogdanova and Andrey Makarychev (bio) This collection of articles is a result of an international networked project that during three years supported professional mobility and connectivity between the University of Tartu and its partners in the South Caucasus in general and Georgia in particular. During the project implementation, colleagues from different institutions met in conferences, workshops, and seminars to discuss issues related to developing new approaches to Georgian politics. Georgia remained a central regional actor that could be discussed from multilayered perspectives, combining historical, cultural and political viewpoints. Grounded in multidisciplinary approaches, the Georgian case shapes horizons for understanding political and cultural dynamics and ensures a holistic approach to various politically themed issues at a regional level. In this cluster, we discuss Georgia from a variety of perspectives that elucidate a plethora of nuanced dimensions to politics and culture that otherwise might remain unnoticed or underconceptualized. We look at Georgia not from the viewpoint of political elites, governments and state institutions, but rather from the vantage point of the multiplicity of competing identities-in-the-making and specific practices and policies unfolding beyond—but, of course, still very much affected by—formal / official hierarchies of power. That is why the authors of this cluster of articles focus on "soft" dimensions of borders and security, and conceptualize them in ideational terms, as discourses, narratives, and imageries that shape policy practices affecting people's lives. This includes the idea of spaces of cultural belonging, particularly meaningful when it comes to fragmented and dispersed identities clashing with each other. In some contexts, religious components may be central for analysis, while in other cases different techniques of governance come to the fore. It is this combination of different perspectives that allow elucidating multiple forms, types, and models of power relations in Georgia, as well as multiple relations of inclusion/ exclusion, bordering/debordering, securitizing/desecuritizing. [End Page 1] Andrey Makarychev Andrey Makarychev is Visiting Professor at Johan Skytte Institute of Political Science, University of Tartu. He is also guest Professor at the Center for Global Politics, Free University in Berlin and Senior Associate with the think tank CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs). His previous institutional affiliations included George Mason University (USA), Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research (ETH Zurich), and the Danish Institute of International Studies. He teaches courses on "Globalization," "Regime Change in Post-Soviet Eurasia," "EU-Russia Relations," "Regionalism and Integration in the Post-Soviet Area," and "Media in Russia." In recent years he has coauthored two monographs—Celebrating Borderlands in a Wider Europe: Nations and Identities in Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia (2016), and Lotman's Cultural Semiotics and the Political (2017). He has coedited (all with Alexandra Yatsyk) a number of academic volumes—Mega Events in Post-Soviet Eurasia: Shifting Borderlands of Inclusion and Exclusion (2016), Vocabularies of International Relations after the Crisis in Ukraine (2017), and Borders in the Baltic Sea Region: Suturing the Ruptures (2017). Copyright © 2018 Institute of Russian Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.