Eur-Asian Lab member Mikel Venhovens has published “Suffocating borderlands: enduring coping mechanisms amidst tight control in Abkhazia” in Territory, Politics, Governance, marking the first article from an upcoming special issue edited by core Lab members and senior academics Karin Dean, Jussi P. Laine, and Raili Nugin.
The article examines how ethnic Georgian minorities in the Gal(i) borderlands navigate systematic socio-political and cultural suppression by de-facto Abkhazian authorities. Venhovens introduces the concept of “suffocation” to conceptualise the embodied experience of disenfranchisement faced by borderland communities caught between competing sovereignties. The research reveals how de-facto authorities employ multiple strategies – social, political, cultural, and material – to control unwanted border populations and consolidate long-term dominance. It also explores how disenfranchised minorities respond through three primary coping mechanisms: enduring, assimilating, and departing.
This publication launches the special issue “Borderland vernaculars: Coping, resilience, and action in times of crisis,” which builds on research presented at the Lab’s 2024 symposium “Bridging the regions and disciplines in border studies” and examines mundane practices by ordinary people in borderlands for survival, livelihood, and opportunity.
Read the full article:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/21622671.2025.2543453