Occupied Intimacies: Borderization in Palestine, Georgia and Western Sahara
As a part of the new project Occupied Intimacies: Borderization in Palestine, Georgia and Western Sahara (Swedish Research Council), Dr Katrine Gotfredsen (Malmö University, GPS, RUCARR) will focus on the Russian occupation of the Georgian territory of South Ossetia.
This is an anthropological project about contemporary military occupations and their effects on the everyday lives of people under their rule. Using ethnography as the main method, the purpose is to investigate and compare the practices and experiences of intimate social relations among occupied people as manifestations of a particular mode of power and dominance in contemporary global politics.
We will compare three cases of on-going and disputed military occupations: the Russian occupation of the Georgian territory of South Ossetia, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. The novelty of this project lies primarily in its comparative perspective, which allows us to reconceptualise ‘occupation’ as a complex and changing process that creates dominance and subordination as well as resistance, obedience and apathy.
Funding: Vetenskapsrådet – Swedish Research Council