Chapter Introduction Post-Soviet Border

Post-Soviet border regions; borderlands; lands; cold wa

Online Appendix to: A Border Regime in the Making? The Case of the Contact Line in Ukraine

The central aim of the paper is to analyze the ceasefire line in eastern Ukraine, widely referred to as the "Contact Line," as an evolving border and a potential social and political boundary. We conceptualize the ceasefire line both as a special type of border that divides conflicting parties and a formerly integrated population and as a border regime managing different forms of mobility. Our mixed method approach combines ethnographic and survey data. The analysis of the formal border regime regulating the access to the divided territories is broadened by a perspective that foregrounds the local residents’ practices and perceptions. The article highlights different mobilities and the informal variations in the border practices along and across the ceasefire line as well as the social and political identities accompanying these practices

Ambivalente Identifikationsräume in der Westukraine: das Phantom der alten Grenze am Zbruč

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit der aktuell vielfach diskutierten Teilung der Ukraine und untersucht sie aus kulturgeographischer Perspektive. In Medien, Wissenschaft und Politik wird die Ukraine in verschiedene Regionen aufgeteilt, die häufig an ehemaligen imperialen und nationalstaatlichen Grenzen ausgerichtet werden. Eine solche historisierende Vorgehensweise liegt angesichts bestimmter augenfälliger räumlicher Differenzen, z.B. in Wahlergebnissen, durchaus nahe. Anhand von Symbolen und Denkmalen in zwei Dörfern in der Westukraine werden dagegen ambivalente Identifikationsräume und ein mehrschichtiger Umgang mit Geschichte in den Dorfgemeinschaften herausgearbeitet. Es wird gezeigt, dass kulturelle Differenz mitunter aus nationaler Erinnerungspolitik erst entsteht. Sie wird von Bewohnern reproduziert und dient der Identifikation. Andererseits zeigt sich das individuelle sowie lokal-kommunikative Gedächtnis als weitaus komplexer und ambivalenter denn solche nationalen Narrative und widerspricht diesen zum Teil. Kulturzentrierte Regionalforschung muss daher, will sie zum Verständnis räumlich-historischer Phänomene beitragen, einen Blick auf die konkreten lokalen Kontexte der jeweils symbolisierten Ereignisse und Interpretationen werfen, will sie nicht scheinbar statisch-essentialisierende Vorstellungen des Wesens von Regionen reproduzieren. (Autorenreferat)The contribution deals with the currently often discussed separation of Ukraine and its investigation from the perspective of culture-centred spatial research. Media, science and politics divide Ukraine into various regions whose boundaries are often the former borders of empires or nations. This also suggests certain territorially conspicuous phenomena such as election results. In the context of this study these phenomena are called phantom borders. With the help of symbols and monuments in villages on the river Zbruč in western Ukraine, which is also often regarded as a potential cultural dividing line between cultural regions in Ukraine, light is shed on ambivalent identification areas and how history is dealt with. It shows that on the basis of national politics of remembrance, a spatial cultural difference is created, which is reproduced by the inhabitants and with which they also identify. However, it also demonstrates that culture-centred regional research to understand such phenomena must also look at the specific local conditions of the events being symbolised in order not to reproduce the apparently static-essentialist perceptions of regions. (author's abstract

Chapter 1 Dynamics of Bordering in the Post-Soviet Space over the Last 30 years

The disintegration of the Soviet Union changed the status of the borders of its republics: internal administrative borders became international ones that were redefined by treaties between the successor republics, and the former external borders of the Union were similarly redefined. This article shows how these negotiations and further bordering developed differently in the regions of the Baltic States, the western post-Soviet states, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Various influencing factors played out differently: previous social, cultural, and political orders; nation-building efforts; economic and structural linkages; and competing regional and international political projects. Peace has prevailed around most of the borders, and the population has created ways to maintain social relations. However, starting with the conflicts in the Caucasus in the early 1990s, unresolved conflicts over borders of the successor republics have increased

Chapter 1 Dynamics of Bordering in the Post-Soviet Space over the Last 30 years

The disintegration of the Soviet Union changed the status of the borders of its republics: internal administrative borders became international ones that were redefined by treaties between the successor republics, and the former external borders of the Union were similarly redefined. This article shows how these negotiations and further bordering developed differently in the regions of the Baltic States, the western post-Soviet states, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Various influencing factors played out differently: previous social, cultural, and political orders; nation-building efforts; economic and structural linkages; and competing regional and international political projects. Peace has prevailed around most of the borders, and the population has created ways to maintain social relations. However, starting with the conflicts in the Caucasus in the early 1990s, unresolved conflicts over borders of the successor republics have increased

"Self Governance" instead of "Metropolitan Governance" in the Metropolitan Region Hamburg. What possibilities for change?

International audienc

Chapter Introduction Post-Soviet Border

Post-Soviet border regions; borderlands; lands; cold wa

Co-organisation de la session "Traces Of The Past: Between Experiences And Spatial Imaginations"

International audienc