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Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on local perceptions of 'security' and 'insecurity' in the context of social change in Dostuk village of Kyrgyzstan and Chor village of Tajikistan after the delineation of national borders between two communities in 2014. Between 2013 and 2018, both villages were at the epicenter of the national security projects of their respective governments. Large infrastructure projects were implemented on the village territories, e.g. the construction of a new road, a bridge or border posts. All this infrastructure was built under the mainstream securitization discourse of the Ferghana Valley borderland. The new infrastructure impaired local social life and catalyzed economic insecurity of Dostuk and Chor villages. Based on the findings from recent field research (in-depth interviews and participant observation 2016-2018), I argue that the Dostuk and Chor communities share a similar perception of 'security' which is at odds with the State discourse of 'security'. While the State sees the presence of border guards and posts in borderland villages contributing to the safety of its citizens, the local communities consider border guards as the main reason for the prevailing insecurity. From the perspective of the interviewees 'yntymak' (social harmony), the shared memory is the major source of security. This study contributes to the critical approach in security studies by highlighting the contradictions between local and national security discourses and investigates the broad diapason of reflections on the concepts of national identity, state border, citizenship, patriotism and how they intertwine with human security challenges in the borderlands of the Ferghana Valley.