Papers by Crossroads Asia University of Bonn
Crossroads Asia Working Paper Series, No. 23, 2014
China and Pakistan share a common border, formally established in 1963, and a close friendship wh... more China and Pakistan share a common border, formally established in 1963, and a close friendship which, to a certain extent, is a direct consequence of that agreement. Somewhat surprisingly the two countries managed to maintain - and even improve - their friendly ties in spite of several events which might have undermined the basis of their friendship. In particular, since September 11, 2001, China has condemned various incidents in its Muslim province of Xinjiang as connected to the global jihad, often holding Pakistan-based Uyghur militants responsible and accusing Islamabad of not doing enough to prevent violence from spreading into Chinese territory. Within a scenario of growing insecurity for the whole region, in this paper I show how China’s influence in Pakistan goes well
beyond the mere government-to-government level. Particularly, I address the hitherto unstudied case of the Uyghur community of Pakistan, the Kashgaris, a group of migrants who left Xinjiang over the course of the last century. This paper, based on four months of fieldwork in Pakistan, aims principally at offering an overview of the history and current situation of the Uyghur community of Pakistan. It thus first examines the migration of the Uyghur families to Pakistan according to several interviews with elder members of the community. Secondly, it addresses some recent developments within the community, and focuses particularly on the influence China is exercising over it since the creation of the Overseas Chinese Association in 2003. Eventually, it suggests that since the opening of the Karakoram Highway in 1982 a variety of factors - among which figures primarily this recent Chinese interest - have caused an important political divide within the community, and brought to a re-definition of the Kashgaris’ identity vis-à-vis both Xinjiang and Pakistan.
Asia network has scrutinised traditional concepts
and methods of AS and explored novel research
a... more Asia network has scrutinised traditional concepts
and methods of AS and explored novel research
approaches related to multiple spatial realities,
(im-)mobilities and (im-)mobilisation, borders and
boundary-making/-weakening, and positionality.
The 5th International Crossroads Asia Conference will
bring together scholars from all disciplines to discuss
related conceptual and methodological innovations
in AS research. How do globalisation, migration,
digitalisation and the notion of the Anthropocene
challenge concepts of ‘areas’, social space and
identities? What methodological and theoretical
intersections exist, for example, between AS, postcolonial
studies, gender studies and other critical
approaches? These are among the key questions we
wish to address.
From 22-23 September 2016, the conference in
Bonn will feature panels, roundtables, and smaller,
interactive discussion groups.
More information is available in the Call for Papers and on our Website, www.crossroads-asia.de.
Abstract submissions are welcome until 31 March
2016.
This concept paper consists of three parts: A first section briefly outlines our understanding of... more This concept paper consists of three parts: A first section briefly outlines our understanding of mobility and migration. Section two is dedicated to a more in-depth glance at the connection of mobility with the approaches of networks, translocal spaces, and the Eliasian concept of figurations. In the concluding section we are drafting a preliminary process model in which the approaches outlined before will be merged.
This paper aims to show how and why the concept of mobility is central to our investigations into... more This paper aims to show how and why the concept of mobility is central to our investigations into development processes, practices and discourses. Section two discusses notions of development, ending with a discussion on how we conceptualise mobility in its various forms. Section three discusses the way the mobility of ideas or discourses surrounding development, notably ideas of modernisation, or of being modern, impact upon people. Section four explores how forms of spatial mobility interrelate with development processes, and section five explores the inter-relations between social mobility and social differentiation with development. Section six considers the way in which social mobilisation relates to the control and access over resources. In section seven, we include a discussion on the methodological implications of this conceptual approach, and section eight summarises the paper’s argument.
The competence network Crossroads Asia aims to contribute to the re-conceptualization of Area Stu... more The competence network Crossroads Asia aims to contribute to the re-conceptualization of Area Studies in general. For this purpose we are focusing on the role of social as well as spatial mobility in human interactions, which can academically be captured in figurations. Our research, which is carried out in 15 sub-projects, intends precisely to understand, the impact of mobility in the fields of ‘conflict’, ‘migration’ and ‘development’. While the competence network Crossroads Asia is still in its first year of existence, the Crossroads Asia Working Papers on ‘conflict’ (No. 4), ‘migration’ (No. 5) and ‘development’ (No. 6) should document the first step of our conceptual thoughts. Thus the aim of these three working papers is to design a conceptual framework of our research and to show how the sub-projects contribute to a better understanding of our idea of Crossroads Asia as a fluid space of social interactions. However, we would like to underscore that we understand our debates on Crossroads Asia, as well as the inter-linkage of the particular sub-projects to the main ideas of the network of competences, as an ongoing process. In this regard, the three working papers should be seen only as a snapshot that reflects our thoughts in the beginning of a longer process and not as the final result of our work.
Today the Afghan-Pakistan Frontier is depicted as the world’s premier place of violence and lawle... more Today the Afghan-Pakistan Frontier is depicted as the world’s premier place of violence and lawlessness, an incubator of chaos and radicalism which threatens the stability of all who come into contact with it. The very titles of some works suggest reductionist visions of this arena as being one-dimensionally defined by the past and future ‘militancy’ of its peoples, for example Joshua White’s Pakistan’s Islamist Frontier (2008). More sophisticated yet equally problematic conceptualizations of the Frontier’s cultural and political make-up also exist. One seeks to elide the Frontier’s political and cultural heterogeneity by depicting its inhabitants as part of a homogenous group occupying a singular space: the term ‘Af-Pak’ ignores the multiple self-identifications nurtured by the region’s inhabitants. It also renders insignificant the very different types of modernizing processes the region’s states have unleashed on local populations. A second mode of representing this space characterizes the Frontier as a ‘non-place’, a chaotic buffer zone situated between the ‘real’ regions of South and Central Asia. This reading of the Frontier traces its genealogy to the imperial ideas of British India and the so-called ‘Great Game’ it purportedly played with Russia for supremacy of Inner Asia. It has been energized by recent popular studies, most especially Rory Stewart’s revealingly entitled The places in between (2006). Such caricatures of the Frontier as a vacuum-like ‘non-space’ resurface in policy circles, notably under the guise of the “ungoverned territory” – a concept carefully dissected recently by Conrad Schetter (2010).
The aim of the project which we are here to launch today is to create a more dynamic, nuanced and sophisticated understanding of this space. Such an understanding offers not only a picture of greater complexity of the space itself, but also the imprint on it of the various forms of moral and political agency enacted by its inhabitants, and the multiple networks of relationships within which these peoples’ lives are entwined.
We generally associate civil wars with flows of refugees. We tend to give much less consideration... more We generally associate civil wars with flows of refugees. We tend to give much less consideration to the way in which patterns of migration that arise as a result of violent conflicts, especially long-lasting ones, take on their own dynamics. Using the conflict in Afghanistan as a case-study, different forms of migration and their significance for an on-going conflict will be examined here. As different factors driving migration are closely interrelated, modern and pre-modern ways of life overlap; this is starkly at variance with the portrait of the “medieval” character of Afghan society so often painted by politicians and the media. Continuous translocal migration of Afghans into neighbouring states and the Gulf States means that nation-state border control regimes are scarcely workable in this case.
Due to the geo-political history of the mountainous region stretching from the Alai in the south ... more Due to the geo-political history of the mountainous region stretching from the Alai in the south of Kyrgyzstan to the north-western Himalaya of India, language barriers, and also perhaps the nature of traditional area studies, little if any comparative work has been undertaken to examine historical and contemporary similarities and differences in farmer-managed gravity-flow canal irrigation across the former divide between Tsarist Russia/USSR and British India/Pakistan. A large number of studies have been undertaken in Nepal, north-western India, and northern Pakistan, however very few studies exist or are readily accessible for understanding the dynamics of hill irrigation in the Tajik Pamir, southern Kyrgyzstan’s Alai, and adjoining mountain ranges. Irrigation-related research in the former Soviet republics is largely concerned with lower elevation systems which have been organised into Water User Associations under reforms carried out by national governments since independence in 1991, under the aegis and direction of international organisations. This paper seeks to explore what is known about hill irrigation in the territories of the latter countries, and to conduct a preliminary analysis of some of the more obvious similarities and contrasts between the contexts within which hill irrigation is practised across several valleys of the above-defined mountainous region.
The value of such a comparative study may lie in its testing of the applicability of a “post-area studies approach”, for hill irrigation is decentralised having little cross-border effects, but yet is deeply affected by the state form, and by socio-cultural values and forms of organisation. The paper covers the ecological conditions and the historical socio-political contexts of selected valleys where hill irrigation is practised, and for which studies and literature exist. It then highlights where research is needed for an understanding of contemporary processes underway in the selected valleys, in particular to gauge the effect high levels of out-migration have upon irrigation systems and practices, and to learn about how state and non-state actors engage with local communities, and vice versa, how local communities of water users mobilise themselves and resources to maintain and improve their irrigation systems. How both migration and intervention interact with inequalities in access to and control over irrigation water and related resources is of central concern.
This paper examines the changing survival strategies of Uzbeks in the aftermath of
mass violent c... more This paper examines the changing survival strategies of Uzbeks in the aftermath of
mass violent conflict in Osh in June 2010. After the riots, Osh Uzbeks were exposed
to many difficulties. The Kyrgyz government used economic and political pressure to
isolate minority groups from the titular nationality, and this opened the door to
mistreatment of minorities in the form of the seizure of properties, job losses, and
even verbal and physical abuse. Despite this mistreatment, however, Uzbeks have
proved reluctant to leave the Osh area. Uzbeks have a long history of living in the
region of Osh; strong emotional and historical sentiments bind them to the region
and its graveyards and sacred sites. Uzbeks have thus had to develop alternative
ways to cope with the uncertainty and insecurity of their situation. They have
adopted strategies which reinforce their vulnerability on the one hand, but provide
security for their children during post-conflict reconstruction on the other. These
strategies include avoidance of public spaces and public attention, marrying
daughters early, and sending male family members to Russia as labor migrants.
These strategies are geared to the underlying aims of protecting the honor of the
community, maintaining social networks, and preserving Uzbek identity without
attracting attention. Uzbeks describe this strategy of patience as sabyrdu.
In recent years, Hazara ethnic consciousness is believed to have developed sharply. The process i... more In recent years, Hazara ethnic consciousness is believed to have developed sharply. The process is
said to have arisen with the start of the 1978 war in Afghanistan and the trend further intensified
during the 1990s civil war in Afghanistan. The argument is that as a historically fragmented and
politically marginalized group, Hazaras have developed a common historical and political
consciousness and demonstrate an internal ‘political bond’ that ‘has not been seen for a century’
(Canfield 2004). Political developments under the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul and the emergence of
anti-Soviet organizations among rural Hazaras during the 1980s are believed to have contributed to
the rise of what has been described as a specific ‘Hazara ideology’ (ibid).
For the sake of argument, these observations are taken as starting points. The paper argues that
ethnicity and ethnic consciousness among the Hazaras is inexorably linked with the emergence of the
Afghan state in the end of the nineteenth century and the crisis and instability that it has gone
through in recent decades. The paper explores the impact of incorporation of the Hazarajat region
into the Afghan state and subsequent political marginalization and mass migration as well as internal
responses to these external forces, in particular articulation and expression of a shared memory of
persecution and marginalization by literate Hazaras, in particular the ulema and intelligentsia, in
Afghanistan and certain places in the Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, in shaping and defining Hazara ethnic
identity. To account for the different phases in articulation of ethnic identity as well as the dramatic
changes in the external environment in which these developments took place, the paper makes a
distinction between the periods before and after 1978, when the war began in Afghanistan.
The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the evolution of Hazaras ethnicity and ethnic
consciousness is a salient but complex and dynamic process. It is the product of external political,
economic and social environment as well as actions and initiatives by members of this particular
ethnic group in different locations.
This working paper explores the social geography of anticipation, desire, exclusion, and control ... more This working paper explores the social geography of anticipation, desire, exclusion, and control that has emerged as a result of Baloch fishermen’s entanglement with the Pakistani government’s plans to develop a large commercial seaport in the small coastal town of Gwadar. Keeping in mind the centrality of everyday experiences in generating social forms, this paper describes how development, transnationalism, and ethnic identity are (re)configured on the ground. It is based on ethnographic encounters that foreground the lived experiences and imaginations of fishermen from Med kinship group who occupy a subaltern position within the local status hierarchy. On the one hand, the promise of becoming modern citizens of the future mega city incites new desires and longings among those fishermen who facilitate their incorporation into emergent regimes of labor and entrepreneurship. On the other hand, Pakistani security forces have tightened their control over the local population by establishing a cordon sanitaire around Gwadar Port and the town. These mechanisms of control have disrupted local fishermen`s experiences of place and intimate sociality and introduced elements of exclusion, fear, and paranoia. By interrupting the fishermen`s expectations of their rightful place in the city, it compels them to think of alternate ways to confront the state’s development agenda, including peaceful protest and armed struggle.
This working paper illustrates the process of territorial transformation in time and space. From ... more This working paper illustrates the process of territorial transformation in time and space. From the period of Silk Road networks to imperial designs for spatial control in Crossroads Asia, external interests for local and regional resources were the driving forces for superpower confrontation. The Great Game is the 19th century highpoint of confrontation leading to boundary-making and restricted trade relations. Decisions taken in far away locations – capitals of superpowers of their time – had significant effects on the most remote corners of Crossroads Asia, from participation excluded communities and populations that were forced to adapt to changing circumstances, political affiliation, contested loyalties and power relations. The border regimes – in terms of communication, mobility and trade – highlight the effects of diplomatic negotiations, forceful encounters and manoeuvring in niches and spaces of neglect. Exchange across boundaries came to a stand-still with the commencement of the Cold War. In this paper constraining factors from geopolitics and internal developments within and between nation-states are presented in order to discuss the development gap with which we are confronted in this high mountainous and remote region of Crossroads Asia.
Taking the establishment of ethnonymous Central Asian republics within the Soviet Union as a starting point, the long-lasting consequences for the now independent states of Central Asia are discussed. The concepts of autonomy and national segregation led to the configuration of republics without historical antecedents. The independent nation-states of Middle Asia are now faced with numerous border disputes, severe communication and exchange constraints and insufficient traffic infrastructures, which were originally established for a larger union and do not comply with the needs of sovereign states of smaller size. Tajikistan’s border impasse with the People’s Republic of China represents a case of communication and trade gaps. Afghanistan is a case in point for external interests and shaping of a nation-state regardless of ethnic and historical considerations. The factors leading to buffer state development and the consequences resulting from imperial domination are discussed on different levels and illustrated with examples from Badakhshan. The Pashtunistan dispute led to a form of irredentism that has affected Afghan-Pakistan relations until today. Pakistan in itself devotes bitterly needed funds for rural development to border disputes, of which the Kashmir stalemate with India is the most costly.
The importance of reconciliation for future mutual understanding, improved exchange relations, infrastructure development, and bi- and multi-lateral cooperation is underpinned by this scrutiny and investigation in past developments. The foundation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) might be a first step leading to more reconciliation in border disputes and enhanced trust and exchange among neighbouring states. Physically feasible and recognizable is the extension of the road network linking and bridging neighbours and the region.
In 70 Jahren sowjetischer Herrschaft waren die Muslime Zentralasiens fast vollständig von ihren
G... more In 70 Jahren sowjetischer Herrschaft waren die Muslime Zentralasiens fast vollständig von ihren
Glaubensbrüdern abgeschnitten. Durch die atheistisch-ideologischen Repressionen waren die
Menschen gezwungen, ihren Glauben im Verborgenen auszuüben. Einige der religiösen Rituale
haben dadurch über die Zeit einen kulturellen Charakter angenommen. Trotzdem blieb das Gefühl,
Muslim zu sein, tief in den Überzeugungen der Bewohner Zentralasiens verwurzelt. Heute, 20 Jahre
nach dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion und der Wiederanbindung an die islamische Welt, haben sich
bisher nur wenige Arbeiten mit den subjektiven Wahrnehmungen der zentralasiatischen Menschen
über den Islam beschäftigt. Das vorliegende Working Paper befasst sich mit eben solchen subjektiven
Islamentwürfen der Menschen in Tadschikistan, die in das soziale Umfeld der Akteure eingebettet
sind. Dabei geht es um die Frage, ob und wie diese subjektiven Vorstellungen von anderen Akteuren
und neuen Informationen beeinflusst werden und sich dadurch verändern. Als Grundlage hierfür
dienen das Konzept der Subjektiven Theorien von Norbert Groeben et al. (1988) und das Konzept der
Lebenswelt von Alfred Schütz und Thomas Luckmann (1979). Einen weiteren theoretischen Rahmen
bildet die Figurations-Soziologie von Norbert Elias (2006). Ähnlich einem Netzwerk besteht eine
Figuration aus Akteuren und deren Beziehungen zueinander, während sich das Kräfte- und
Machtgleichgewicht dieser Gesamtheit in andauernder Bewegung befindet und sich ständig
verändert. Es soll der Versuch gemacht werden, die am Entwicklungsprozess des Islams – oft auch
umstritten als Re-Islamisierung bezeichnet – beteiligten Akteure und deren Interdependenzen in
einer Figuration zu skizzieren und, am Beispiel eines Dorfes, die verschiedenen Akteure mit ihren
Subjektiven Theorien und deren Beziehung zueinander zu beleuchten und aufzuzeigen.
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Papers by Crossroads Asia University of Bonn
beyond the mere government-to-government level. Particularly, I address the hitherto unstudied case of the Uyghur community of Pakistan, the Kashgaris, a group of migrants who left Xinjiang over the course of the last century. This paper, based on four months of fieldwork in Pakistan, aims principally at offering an overview of the history and current situation of the Uyghur community of Pakistan. It thus first examines the migration of the Uyghur families to Pakistan according to several interviews with elder members of the community. Secondly, it addresses some recent developments within the community, and focuses particularly on the influence China is exercising over it since the creation of the Overseas Chinese Association in 2003. Eventually, it suggests that since the opening of the Karakoram Highway in 1982 a variety of factors - among which figures primarily this recent Chinese interest - have caused an important political divide within the community, and brought to a re-definition of the Kashgaris’ identity vis-à-vis both Xinjiang and Pakistan.
and methods of AS and explored novel research
approaches related to multiple spatial realities,
(im-)mobilities and (im-)mobilisation, borders and
boundary-making/-weakening, and positionality.
The 5th International Crossroads Asia Conference will
bring together scholars from all disciplines to discuss
related conceptual and methodological innovations
in AS research. How do globalisation, migration,
digitalisation and the notion of the Anthropocene
challenge concepts of ‘areas’, social space and
identities? What methodological and theoretical
intersections exist, for example, between AS, postcolonial
studies, gender studies and other critical
approaches? These are among the key questions we
wish to address.
From 22-23 September 2016, the conference in
Bonn will feature panels, roundtables, and smaller,
interactive discussion groups.
More information is available in the Call for Papers and on our Website, www.crossroads-asia.de.
Abstract submissions are welcome until 31 March
2016.
The aim of the project which we are here to launch today is to create a more dynamic, nuanced and sophisticated understanding of this space. Such an understanding offers not only a picture of greater complexity of the space itself, but also the imprint on it of the various forms of moral and political agency enacted by its inhabitants, and the multiple networks of relationships within which these peoples’ lives are entwined.
The value of such a comparative study may lie in its testing of the applicability of a “post-area studies approach”, for hill irrigation is decentralised having little cross-border effects, but yet is deeply affected by the state form, and by socio-cultural values and forms of organisation. The paper covers the ecological conditions and the historical socio-political contexts of selected valleys where hill irrigation is practised, and for which studies and literature exist. It then highlights where research is needed for an understanding of contemporary processes underway in the selected valleys, in particular to gauge the effect high levels of out-migration have upon irrigation systems and practices, and to learn about how state and non-state actors engage with local communities, and vice versa, how local communities of water users mobilise themselves and resources to maintain and improve their irrigation systems. How both migration and intervention interact with inequalities in access to and control over irrigation water and related resources is of central concern.
mass violent conflict in Osh in June 2010. After the riots, Osh Uzbeks were exposed
to many difficulties. The Kyrgyz government used economic and political pressure to
isolate minority groups from the titular nationality, and this opened the door to
mistreatment of minorities in the form of the seizure of properties, job losses, and
even verbal and physical abuse. Despite this mistreatment, however, Uzbeks have
proved reluctant to leave the Osh area. Uzbeks have a long history of living in the
region of Osh; strong emotional and historical sentiments bind them to the region
and its graveyards and sacred sites. Uzbeks have thus had to develop alternative
ways to cope with the uncertainty and insecurity of their situation. They have
adopted strategies which reinforce their vulnerability on the one hand, but provide
security for their children during post-conflict reconstruction on the other. These
strategies include avoidance of public spaces and public attention, marrying
daughters early, and sending male family members to Russia as labor migrants.
These strategies are geared to the underlying aims of protecting the honor of the
community, maintaining social networks, and preserving Uzbek identity without
attracting attention. Uzbeks describe this strategy of patience as sabyrdu.
said to have arisen with the start of the 1978 war in Afghanistan and the trend further intensified
during the 1990s civil war in Afghanistan. The argument is that as a historically fragmented and
politically marginalized group, Hazaras have developed a common historical and political
consciousness and demonstrate an internal ‘political bond’ that ‘has not been seen for a century’
(Canfield 2004). Political developments under the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul and the emergence of
anti-Soviet organizations among rural Hazaras during the 1980s are believed to have contributed to
the rise of what has been described as a specific ‘Hazara ideology’ (ibid).
For the sake of argument, these observations are taken as starting points. The paper argues that
ethnicity and ethnic consciousness among the Hazaras is inexorably linked with the emergence of the
Afghan state in the end of the nineteenth century and the crisis and instability that it has gone
through in recent decades. The paper explores the impact of incorporation of the Hazarajat region
into the Afghan state and subsequent political marginalization and mass migration as well as internal
responses to these external forces, in particular articulation and expression of a shared memory of
persecution and marginalization by literate Hazaras, in particular the ulema and intelligentsia, in
Afghanistan and certain places in the Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, in shaping and defining Hazara ethnic
identity. To account for the different phases in articulation of ethnic identity as well as the dramatic
changes in the external environment in which these developments took place, the paper makes a
distinction between the periods before and after 1978, when the war began in Afghanistan.
The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the evolution of Hazaras ethnicity and ethnic
consciousness is a salient but complex and dynamic process. It is the product of external political,
economic and social environment as well as actions and initiatives by members of this particular
ethnic group in different locations.
Taking the establishment of ethnonymous Central Asian republics within the Soviet Union as a starting point, the long-lasting consequences for the now independent states of Central Asia are discussed. The concepts of autonomy and national segregation led to the configuration of republics without historical antecedents. The independent nation-states of Middle Asia are now faced with numerous border disputes, severe communication and exchange constraints and insufficient traffic infrastructures, which were originally established for a larger union and do not comply with the needs of sovereign states of smaller size. Tajikistan’s border impasse with the People’s Republic of China represents a case of communication and trade gaps. Afghanistan is a case in point for external interests and shaping of a nation-state regardless of ethnic and historical considerations. The factors leading to buffer state development and the consequences resulting from imperial domination are discussed on different levels and illustrated with examples from Badakhshan. The Pashtunistan dispute led to a form of irredentism that has affected Afghan-Pakistan relations until today. Pakistan in itself devotes bitterly needed funds for rural development to border disputes, of which the Kashmir stalemate with India is the most costly.
The importance of reconciliation for future mutual understanding, improved exchange relations, infrastructure development, and bi- and multi-lateral cooperation is underpinned by this scrutiny and investigation in past developments. The foundation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) might be a first step leading to more reconciliation in border disputes and enhanced trust and exchange among neighbouring states. Physically feasible and recognizable is the extension of the road network linking and bridging neighbours and the region.
Glaubensbrüdern abgeschnitten. Durch die atheistisch-ideologischen Repressionen waren die
Menschen gezwungen, ihren Glauben im Verborgenen auszuüben. Einige der religiösen Rituale
haben dadurch über die Zeit einen kulturellen Charakter angenommen. Trotzdem blieb das Gefühl,
Muslim zu sein, tief in den Überzeugungen der Bewohner Zentralasiens verwurzelt. Heute, 20 Jahre
nach dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion und der Wiederanbindung an die islamische Welt, haben sich
bisher nur wenige Arbeiten mit den subjektiven Wahrnehmungen der zentralasiatischen Menschen
über den Islam beschäftigt. Das vorliegende Working Paper befasst sich mit eben solchen subjektiven
Islamentwürfen der Menschen in Tadschikistan, die in das soziale Umfeld der Akteure eingebettet
sind. Dabei geht es um die Frage, ob und wie diese subjektiven Vorstellungen von anderen Akteuren
und neuen Informationen beeinflusst werden und sich dadurch verändern. Als Grundlage hierfür
dienen das Konzept der Subjektiven Theorien von Norbert Groeben et al. (1988) und das Konzept der
Lebenswelt von Alfred Schütz und Thomas Luckmann (1979). Einen weiteren theoretischen Rahmen
bildet die Figurations-Soziologie von Norbert Elias (2006). Ähnlich einem Netzwerk besteht eine
Figuration aus Akteuren und deren Beziehungen zueinander, während sich das Kräfte- und
Machtgleichgewicht dieser Gesamtheit in andauernder Bewegung befindet und sich ständig
verändert. Es soll der Versuch gemacht werden, die am Entwicklungsprozess des Islams – oft auch
umstritten als Re-Islamisierung bezeichnet – beteiligten Akteure und deren Interdependenzen in
einer Figuration zu skizzieren und, am Beispiel eines Dorfes, die verschiedenen Akteure mit ihren
Subjektiven Theorien und deren Beziehung zueinander zu beleuchten und aufzuzeigen.
beyond the mere government-to-government level. Particularly, I address the hitherto unstudied case of the Uyghur community of Pakistan, the Kashgaris, a group of migrants who left Xinjiang over the course of the last century. This paper, based on four months of fieldwork in Pakistan, aims principally at offering an overview of the history and current situation of the Uyghur community of Pakistan. It thus first examines the migration of the Uyghur families to Pakistan according to several interviews with elder members of the community. Secondly, it addresses some recent developments within the community, and focuses particularly on the influence China is exercising over it since the creation of the Overseas Chinese Association in 2003. Eventually, it suggests that since the opening of the Karakoram Highway in 1982 a variety of factors - among which figures primarily this recent Chinese interest - have caused an important political divide within the community, and brought to a re-definition of the Kashgaris’ identity vis-à-vis both Xinjiang and Pakistan.
and methods of AS and explored novel research
approaches related to multiple spatial realities,
(im-)mobilities and (im-)mobilisation, borders and
boundary-making/-weakening, and positionality.
The 5th International Crossroads Asia Conference will
bring together scholars from all disciplines to discuss
related conceptual and methodological innovations
in AS research. How do globalisation, migration,
digitalisation and the notion of the Anthropocene
challenge concepts of ‘areas’, social space and
identities? What methodological and theoretical
intersections exist, for example, between AS, postcolonial
studies, gender studies and other critical
approaches? These are among the key questions we
wish to address.
From 22-23 September 2016, the conference in
Bonn will feature panels, roundtables, and smaller,
interactive discussion groups.
More information is available in the Call for Papers and on our Website, www.crossroads-asia.de.
Abstract submissions are welcome until 31 March
2016.
The aim of the project which we are here to launch today is to create a more dynamic, nuanced and sophisticated understanding of this space. Such an understanding offers not only a picture of greater complexity of the space itself, but also the imprint on it of the various forms of moral and political agency enacted by its inhabitants, and the multiple networks of relationships within which these peoples’ lives are entwined.
The value of such a comparative study may lie in its testing of the applicability of a “post-area studies approach”, for hill irrigation is decentralised having little cross-border effects, but yet is deeply affected by the state form, and by socio-cultural values and forms of organisation. The paper covers the ecological conditions and the historical socio-political contexts of selected valleys where hill irrigation is practised, and for which studies and literature exist. It then highlights where research is needed for an understanding of contemporary processes underway in the selected valleys, in particular to gauge the effect high levels of out-migration have upon irrigation systems and practices, and to learn about how state and non-state actors engage with local communities, and vice versa, how local communities of water users mobilise themselves and resources to maintain and improve their irrigation systems. How both migration and intervention interact with inequalities in access to and control over irrigation water and related resources is of central concern.
mass violent conflict in Osh in June 2010. After the riots, Osh Uzbeks were exposed
to many difficulties. The Kyrgyz government used economic and political pressure to
isolate minority groups from the titular nationality, and this opened the door to
mistreatment of minorities in the form of the seizure of properties, job losses, and
even verbal and physical abuse. Despite this mistreatment, however, Uzbeks have
proved reluctant to leave the Osh area. Uzbeks have a long history of living in the
region of Osh; strong emotional and historical sentiments bind them to the region
and its graveyards and sacred sites. Uzbeks have thus had to develop alternative
ways to cope with the uncertainty and insecurity of their situation. They have
adopted strategies which reinforce their vulnerability on the one hand, but provide
security for their children during post-conflict reconstruction on the other. These
strategies include avoidance of public spaces and public attention, marrying
daughters early, and sending male family members to Russia as labor migrants.
These strategies are geared to the underlying aims of protecting the honor of the
community, maintaining social networks, and preserving Uzbek identity without
attracting attention. Uzbeks describe this strategy of patience as sabyrdu.
said to have arisen with the start of the 1978 war in Afghanistan and the trend further intensified
during the 1990s civil war in Afghanistan. The argument is that as a historically fragmented and
politically marginalized group, Hazaras have developed a common historical and political
consciousness and demonstrate an internal ‘political bond’ that ‘has not been seen for a century’
(Canfield 2004). Political developments under the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul and the emergence of
anti-Soviet organizations among rural Hazaras during the 1980s are believed to have contributed to
the rise of what has been described as a specific ‘Hazara ideology’ (ibid).
For the sake of argument, these observations are taken as starting points. The paper argues that
ethnicity and ethnic consciousness among the Hazaras is inexorably linked with the emergence of the
Afghan state in the end of the nineteenth century and the crisis and instability that it has gone
through in recent decades. The paper explores the impact of incorporation of the Hazarajat region
into the Afghan state and subsequent political marginalization and mass migration as well as internal
responses to these external forces, in particular articulation and expression of a shared memory of
persecution and marginalization by literate Hazaras, in particular the ulema and intelligentsia, in
Afghanistan and certain places in the Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, in shaping and defining Hazara ethnic
identity. To account for the different phases in articulation of ethnic identity as well as the dramatic
changes in the external environment in which these developments took place, the paper makes a
distinction between the periods before and after 1978, when the war began in Afghanistan.
The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the evolution of Hazaras ethnicity and ethnic
consciousness is a salient but complex and dynamic process. It is the product of external political,
economic and social environment as well as actions and initiatives by members of this particular
ethnic group in different locations.
Taking the establishment of ethnonymous Central Asian republics within the Soviet Union as a starting point, the long-lasting consequences for the now independent states of Central Asia are discussed. The concepts of autonomy and national segregation led to the configuration of republics without historical antecedents. The independent nation-states of Middle Asia are now faced with numerous border disputes, severe communication and exchange constraints and insufficient traffic infrastructures, which were originally established for a larger union and do not comply with the needs of sovereign states of smaller size. Tajikistan’s border impasse with the People’s Republic of China represents a case of communication and trade gaps. Afghanistan is a case in point for external interests and shaping of a nation-state regardless of ethnic and historical considerations. The factors leading to buffer state development and the consequences resulting from imperial domination are discussed on different levels and illustrated with examples from Badakhshan. The Pashtunistan dispute led to a form of irredentism that has affected Afghan-Pakistan relations until today. Pakistan in itself devotes bitterly needed funds for rural development to border disputes, of which the Kashmir stalemate with India is the most costly.
The importance of reconciliation for future mutual understanding, improved exchange relations, infrastructure development, and bi- and multi-lateral cooperation is underpinned by this scrutiny and investigation in past developments. The foundation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) might be a first step leading to more reconciliation in border disputes and enhanced trust and exchange among neighbouring states. Physically feasible and recognizable is the extension of the road network linking and bridging neighbours and the region.
Glaubensbrüdern abgeschnitten. Durch die atheistisch-ideologischen Repressionen waren die
Menschen gezwungen, ihren Glauben im Verborgenen auszuüben. Einige der religiösen Rituale
haben dadurch über die Zeit einen kulturellen Charakter angenommen. Trotzdem blieb das Gefühl,
Muslim zu sein, tief in den Überzeugungen der Bewohner Zentralasiens verwurzelt. Heute, 20 Jahre
nach dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion und der Wiederanbindung an die islamische Welt, haben sich
bisher nur wenige Arbeiten mit den subjektiven Wahrnehmungen der zentralasiatischen Menschen
über den Islam beschäftigt. Das vorliegende Working Paper befasst sich mit eben solchen subjektiven
Islamentwürfen der Menschen in Tadschikistan, die in das soziale Umfeld der Akteure eingebettet
sind. Dabei geht es um die Frage, ob und wie diese subjektiven Vorstellungen von anderen Akteuren
und neuen Informationen beeinflusst werden und sich dadurch verändern. Als Grundlage hierfür
dienen das Konzept der Subjektiven Theorien von Norbert Groeben et al. (1988) und das Konzept der
Lebenswelt von Alfred Schütz und Thomas Luckmann (1979). Einen weiteren theoretischen Rahmen
bildet die Figurations-Soziologie von Norbert Elias (2006). Ähnlich einem Netzwerk besteht eine
Figuration aus Akteuren und deren Beziehungen zueinander, während sich das Kräfte- und
Machtgleichgewicht dieser Gesamtheit in andauernder Bewegung befindet und sich ständig
verändert. Es soll der Versuch gemacht werden, die am Entwicklungsprozess des Islams – oft auch
umstritten als Re-Islamisierung bezeichnet – beteiligten Akteure und deren Interdependenzen in
einer Figuration zu skizzieren und, am Beispiel eines Dorfes, die verschiedenen Akteure mit ihren
Subjektiven Theorien und deren Beziehung zueinander zu beleuchten und aufzuzeigen.