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- Convenors:
-
Gerhild Perl
(University of Trier)
Lene Faust (University of Bern)
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- Chair:
-
Christoph Lange
(University of Cologne)
- Format:
- Workshop
- Regional groups:
- Mediterranean
- Transfers:
- Closed for transfers
Short Abstract:
What constitutes a region and “the regional”, and how do practices of un/commoning shape regions and transgress borders? We invite scholars working in different regions to engage in a dialogue on the complex and contradictory conceptualizations of “their regions“.
Long Abstract:
Regional expertise is a core requirement for ethnographic research and anthropological expertise. Anthropological departments have historically been organized along regional lines, and professional associations, such as the GAA, usually have regional working groups. As the speakers of the GAA Mediterranean Regional Group, we invite anthropologists working in and on different world regions to discuss multi-layered conceptualizations of their regions. What constitutes “the region” and “the regional,” and how has it shaped understandings of anthropology and anthropologists? When is “the region” invoked as a geographical space, a political idea, an economic project or a socio-cultural imaginary? Regions are dynamic, emerging through historical, political, social, and spiritual connections and separations. Practices of commoning–– such as transboundary solidarity, neighborly responsibility, and mutual care in the face of polycrises––invite us to rethink what is meant by “the region,” also in comparison to other concepts such as “the area,” “the local,” “the state,” and “the global”. We aim to explore how regions are constituted as geopolitical entities, diverse social spaces, socio-cultural landscapes, and (endangered) ecosystems shaped by historical legacies and (new) forms of marginalization. Efforts at commoning, including the preservation of shared resources, such as ecosystems and public goods, often face resistance, among others, from nationalist movements and extractivist politics. Contributions should address the question of what constitutes “a region”, “the regional” and its borders, and how practices of un/commoning shape regions with a focus on care, solidarity and resistance, even across species boundaries, that might challenge dominant social formations and power relations.
Accepted contributions:
Session 1Contribution short abstract:
Racism and colonialism shape regional conceptions beyond geographical space. This can be shown in the context of East African borders, regional integration and PanAfrican solidarity. As co-speaker of the GAA group “Africa”, this panel is a chance to overcome the regional limits of our working units.
Contribution long abstract:
The regional construction of “Africa” has been a fundamental element of colonisation in two ways. Firstly, internal borders were established as colonial inventions to assist imperial exploitation and to consolidate power. Secondly, the idea of an unambiguous distinction between “Europe” and “Africa” has been based on racist ideologies, which substantiated intervention. The “bordering of Africa” has had a number of negative consequences, such as obstacles to economic growth and mobility; violent border and resource conflicts; an increasingly defensive EU border regime, which callously accepts deaths in the mediterranean “frontier” zone; neglection of inner plurality, everyday racism and othering of Black people in Europe.
Likewise in East Africa, colonial borders, cumbersome bureaucracies and territorial conflicts shape the region until today. Moreover, some of the existing ethno-political boundaries were influenced by European racist ideologies. At the same time, one can observe various acts of resistance to the status quo. Firstly, on a local level, communities have continued to rely on cross-border solidarity networks and shared resources, and maintain alternative regional formations and political units (Asiwaju 1985). A second example is the introduction of new forms of collaborative border management and strengthened regional integration by African governments (Mbembe 2001). This is connected to a third point: the idea of Pan-African solidarity. As a key concept of decolonial independence movements, with international main figures such as Marcus Garvey or W.E.B. Du Bois, it transgresses the geographical space beyond the African continent. More recently, the BlackLivesMatter Movement provides a united empowerment space beyond regional limitations.
Contribution short abstract:
In a memoryscape dominated by ethno-nationalist narratives that attempts to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina through uncommoning Socialist Yugoslav heritage, the staff of the History Museum engage in commemorative practices that highlight inter-ethnic solidarity, resisting the erasure of a common past.
Contribution long abstract:
With the dissolution of Yugoslavia into various sovereign states in the early 1990s, conflict broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the fragmentation of the country into two entities and a district. The inadequate legal framework together with the lack of coordination has resulted in memorialisation practices in BiH where the majority group is able to commemorate their victims and armed forces in line with ethnonationalist narratives and at the same time preclude those that have been constructed as “other” from engaging in memory work that marks the sites of atrocities. This spatial uncommoning of the region has been accompanied by revisions of the past where ethnic groups are depicted as distinct, separate, and defined by their opposition to one another. Since the breakup of Socialist Yugoslavia, memorials of the Second World War that were once used to promote ‘Bratstvo i jedinstvo’ or brotherhood and unity have been destroyed, left to ruin, or appropriated by ethnonationalist leaders to attest to the supremacy of their particular ethnic group. The aim of this paper, however, is to shift focus to commemorative practices in the History Museum of BiH, that labour to create spaces of shared belonging and resist the erasure of a common past. Through the recent opening of the permanent exhibition 'Wer ist Walter,' this institution strives to conserve the heritage of a common struggle against fascism and in so doing speaks of a Bosnian-Herzegovinian, Yugoslav, and European past.
Contribution short abstract:
This paper applies an ethnographic lens to contemporary feminist resistance against the planned bridge across the Strait of Messina. It asks: How does anti-bridge resistance rethink the Messina-Reggio connectivities through care? What alternative visions of regional futures arise?
Contribution long abstract:
In the discourse surrounding the unbuilt “ponte sullo stretto”, the bridge across the strait of Messina, the proponents of the mega-infrastructure project emphasize how, if realized, it would connect two economically disadvantaged regions - Sicily and Calabria - and create a greater one “as if there were no longer a sea dividing them” (Gattuso 2024). This rationale echoes hopes and anxieties lodged in the long-standing socio-cultural imaginary of Sicily as both part of and cut off from (Schneider 1998) the Mediterranean space of cosmopolitan interconnection. The most recent version of the plan, however, has been met with robust resistance: Ever since the unbuilt bridge resurfaced on Italy’s current far-right government’s budget planning agenda, feminist collectives - among others - have flagged its planned construction as a transfeminist issue, warning that the plan, if materialized, would result in a domination of the earth, and, with that, a further domination of the marginalized bodies living with and lining the strait.
Through an ethnographic lens on current debates around the “ponte”, this paper asks: What does it mean to rethink the Messina-Reggio space through contemporary feminist resistance? What are (feminist) visions of care that “burn the bridge” over the strait, and let different futures rise in its stead? Departing from these questions, I put in conversation feminist attention to spatialized culture and the cultural-architectural history of the Sicilian island (the “Siciliano Incompiuto”), shedding light on the speculative connectivities that emerge from alternative future imaginaries for the regions that the strait straddles.
Contribution short abstract:
The paper explores how Jennersdorf residents on the southeastern Austrian border navigate a state of peripheralization resulting from a socioeconomic & infrastructural disconnections, and redefine their cross-border sense of belonging through a wide set of local responses and networks of mutual aid.
Contribution long abstract:
The southernmost district of federal state Burgenland (Austria), Jennersdorf, grapples with a sense of being "forgotten between borders." Limited infrastructural development and socioeconomic ties disconnect the region from its state capital, aligning it more with neighboring federal state Styria, Hungary and Slovenia. This perceived and actual marginalization fuels complex local approaches, often rooted in strong interpersonal networks and mutual aid, which this paper will explore.
Through ethnographic research and interviews conducted in 2024, the paper investigates how locals address infrastructural gaps. These strategies include on the one side, the rise of a local right-wing populist party and, on the other, the establishment of civil society organizations providing services like counseling, healthcare, and economic opportunities. Strategies are deeply embedded in historical infrastructural developments, geography, and socioeconomic networks within the region. The misalignment between political belonging, local perceptions and the role of local support networks shaped local approaches. They are further impacted by the influx of new residents pursuing an alternative lifestyle.
The paper contributes to discussions on "un/commoning the region" by revealing the complexities of borderland identities, where political and social geographies interact. It argues that Jennersdorf exemplifies the interplay of care and resistance, often manifested through interpersonal networks, in reshaping regional belonging amidst a changing sociopolitical landscape. It interrogates how natural environments, infrastructural policies, and economic networks contribute to regional solidarity or division, emphasizing the importance of mutual support in navigating these challenges. Furthermore, it considers how residents resist imposed regional narratives and craft their own understandings of belonging.