Abstract:

Like most of modern European nations, also modern Georgians emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when a number of distinct ethnic groups sharing larger or smaller cultural similarities were integrated into a single self-conscious nation. This process has been already investigated by a number of authors. In this paper, we will focus on four specific groups who are typically considered as part of the Georgian nation and at least at some point identify themselves as Georgians. These are the Megrels, Svans, Ajarians, and Tush. Both the academic and popular literature mostly refer to these peoples as sub-ethnic or ethnographic groups. While there is a relatively large bulk of literature studying Georgia’s ethnic minorities, above all Armenians in Javakheti and Azerbaijanis in Kvemo Kartli regions, and their inclusion into the Georgian political nation, significantly less is known about the situation of Georgia’s subethnic and ethnographic groups, their self-perceptions and relations to the Georgian nation in political or ethnic sense. The proposed paper presents the results of long-term fieldwork among Megrels, Svans, Ajarians, and Tush.

Abstract:

Infrastructure projects in the global neoliberal order often fracture cities instead of providing residents equitable access. Marvin and Graham describe this process as “splintering urbanism”, where privileged individuals enjoy enhanced mobility while those with fewer resources are bypassed. This is achieved through the creation of parallel infrastructures, including raised walkways, tunnels, or cable cars to selectively connect. Using the splintering urbanism paradigm as a point of departure, our work discusses large-scale projects initiated in the Republic of Georgia since the 2000s relying on parallel infrastructure to be realised. The first is the multi-site real-estate development, initiated in 2014, Panorama Tbilisi interconnected with ropeways. The second is an iconic business centre, that started in the early 2000s, overlooking Tbilisi that required the construction of a bypass-tunnel over the city’s public road network. And, the third is the Dendrological Park located on the shores of Black Sea and opened in 2020, the creation of which relied on extensive augmentations to road, rail, and electrical infrastructures to relocate its collection of old-growth trees.

These projects are all the initiative of Cartu Group, one of Georgia’s largest holding companies, owned by ex-prime minister and ruling party leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili. Cartu Group is a proxy for Ivanishvili’s development interests in the country and the group has now created sizable networks of premium real estate through the mass transformation of the existing landscape, realized through restricted access to public infrastructure for the many to increase comfort for the few. These projects have disrupted daily routines and deteriorated living environments while relying on parallel infrastructures in its realisation. We argue that such practices of splintering urbanism exist not only in these projects’ built forms but also in their planning and construction. In Georgia, parallel infrastructures have catalysed the realization of Cartu Group’s projects while masking their bypass strategies with universal access discourse. These approaches are particularly hazardous in the context of a young democracy like Georgia, where powerful private actors have strong connections to the ruling party. Their splintering urbanism practices erode democracy and fracture the urban environment.

Abstract:

Over the past two decades, investors from the UAE have undertaken numerous real estate development initiatives in the rapidly transforming geography of the Global East, significantly ranging in scale, program, and geographic spread. Countries as diverse as Albania, Serbia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan are all now focal points of Emirati investment, and with it, new state relations. As UAE officials seek to diversify their country’s economic portfolio and geography of influence, such initiatives raise broader questions about the degree to which the influx of capital is accompanied by tendencies toward authoritarian governance. Zooming into the specific case of Georgia, this research examines whether or not there are signs of opaque, illiberal urban development being imposed on Georgia from the UAE. We address this question by tracking key Emirati projects within Georgia, focusing on four cases: (1) the major Black Sea port of Poti with adjacent Free Industrial Zone, (2) the country’s largest-proposed shopping district, Uptown Tbilisi, (3) 10,000 palm trees planted along Black Sea coastal cities, and (4) the seven-star Biltmore Hotel in Tbilisi. Drawing from mixed-methods research, we show how the approaches to urban development established within the Emirates are now being exported into Georgia and becoming entangled with the country’s own existing illiberal practices of city building. We argue that to fully understand the role that urban development plays within Georgia’s flawed democracy—and others like it—it is necessary to zoom out and consider these wider networks of foreign influence by authoritarian governed states such as the UAE.