Far Eastern Borderlands: Informal Networks and Space at the Margins of the Russian State

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In an increasingly globalized world, borderlands provide a very interesting point of investigation of the direction and pace of socio-economic change. This project is comparative ethnographic research of two post-Soviet border zones, Chukotka in the North East and Primore in the southeastern region of Russia. These two regions of the former Soviet Union are of particular interest because the main populations are ethnic minority peoples marginalized both socially and geographically by the majority social and political structure yet in the contemporary geopolitical situation, they occupy the borders with two economic-political super powers, China and the US. As part of his research, the PI will investigate such issues as commodity flow, global mobilities, border space, and informal economies and how these affect local social structures and cultural identities of the people that occupy this porous borderland landscape. Using multiple methodologies: participant observations, archival research, informal interviews and surveys and a Google map-based geo-visualization tool to facilitate an understanding of social pattern in physical space, the project will be able to analyze individual informal networks and community social networks, as well as spatially embedded economic practices, in both border zones in greater depth.