[EN] До 15 апреля принимаются заявки на участие в международном семинаре «“Co-Ethnics” как нежелательные другие. Внутригрупповая напряженность после падения коммунизма: причины, последствия и контексты»

Co-Ethnics as Unwanted Others
Intra-Group Tensions After the Fall of Communism: Causes, Consequences, and Contexts

International workshop – June 20, 2014

Paris Institute for Advanced Studies

A huge variety of cases involving the interaction of different ethnic/racial groups (in recent history up to the present day) and resulting in tension, conflict, disillusionment, discrimination, etc., have been the subject of extensive social research worldwide. Thus, thousands of scholarly works have been written about the intricacies of acceptance and integration of immigrants who are racial, ethnic and/or confessional ‘others’ in relation to host populations. Alongside this, there are many examples of co-ethnics’ interaction which are also, overtly or latently, accompanied by intra-group conflict, tension and misunderstanding. Academic coverage of co-ethnics’ encounters is far less ‘mature’ in terms of conceptualization, and literature devoted to these issues is far less abundant.

The pattern of peoples’ interaction being studied is usually a result of various kinds of population movement provoked by serious socio-political cataclysms in the 20th and 21st centuries: 1) post-colonial situations; 2) collapse of multi-national states, followed by massive reconfiguration of borders and nationalizing policies of successor post-Soviet/post-socialist states; 3) intensification of labor migration, both internal (rural-urban) and international, resulting from post-socialist economic transformation.

Our aim is to bring together international scholars who could present results of their latest research on the topic covering the two last cases, preferably from a comparative and/or micro-level perspective. We would also welcome papers addressing the relevance and analytical pro and cons of the terms which have been usually attached to phenomena under study («ethnically privileged migration», «repatriation», «co-ethnic return», «diasporic homecomings», etc.).

In more concrete terms, we seek contributions addressing the following themes all touching upon various aspects of identity/mutual perception of co-ethnics and their hosts:

— triggers of co-ethnic migrants’ non-acceptance by the host population (cultural/linguistic otherness; social status before and upon arrival; stereotyping towards a sending country dominating in the public discourse in a homeland; contested perceptions of who are «true» representatives of an ethnic group, etc.);

— redefinition by co-ethnics of their ethnic/cultural identity and notion of «homeland» under different return and reception scenarios;

— impact of home immigration policies and state-imposed parameters of belonging on mutual expectations and relationships between the two sides;

— regionally (locally) specified historical and socio-cultural contexts feeding into the perception of co-ethnics by the host populations.

The results of the workshop are intended to be published as a Special Issue of a peer-reviewed journal. Long-term goals of the event include further development of collaborative networks, to give impetus to new research ventures on the topic under study at the national and international levels.

Organizer: Natalya Kosmarskaya (Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; Visiting Fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies).

Workshop venue: Paris Institute for Advanced Studies, 17 quai d’Anjou, 75004 Paris, FRANCE.

Time: June the 20th, 2014.

The deadline for Abstracts, not exceeding 300 words, is April 15th, 2014.

Please, send your abstracts as E-mail attachments, together with a short CV (not more than two pages) to Natalya Kosmarskaya, [email protected]

Working language of the workshop will be English. Selected participants will be kindly requested to submit a short draft paper (appr. 3-4 thousand words) by June the 13th, 2014, to ensure pre-circulation of papers among all the paper-presenters.

Funding: coverage of travel within Europe and/or accommodation costs (two nights) may be offered to a number of participants, but we expect them to apply first to their institutional/university funds.