Rethinking everyday integration spatially: How do young Russian-speaking adults negotiate their belonging in the shrinking ethnocentric geography of Latvian society?

Descrizione del progetto

Integrazione dei giovani russofoni nel paesaggio etnocentrico della Lettonia

L’invasione dell’Ucraina da parte della Russia ha accentuato le preoccupazioni sulla lealtà della vasta popolazione lettone russofona e ha sottolineato l’urgente necessità di una sua integrazione nella società lettone ed europea. Sostenuto dal programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, il progetto SPAGINTEG analizzerà il modo in cui i giovani russofoni in Lettonia danno forma alle proprie esperienze al di là delle narrazioni spinte dallo Stato. Il progetto esaminerà il modo in cui questi giovani affrontano la vita quotidiana in una società etnocentrica, contribuendo con nuove intuizioni empiriche allo studio dell’integrazione delle minoranze in contesti multietnici. La ricerca comprenderà un lavoro etnografico sul campo e si confronterà con le questioni più ampie dell’identità post-sovietica e della politica delle minoranze nella regione baltica.

Obiettivo

SPAGINTEG is a two-year fellowship at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES) at Uppsala University, Sweden. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a dramatic aftermath beyond the battlefield. Specifically, it has resurfaced concerns about the allegiances of a large Russian-speaking population in Latvia and the pressing need for their integration into Latvian and European society. The project speaks to the gap in the studies about the everyday integration of young Russohpones in Latvia by foregrounding their agency in defining and enacting integration through their lived experiences beyond the state-centric narratives. Drawing on the critical debate in the field of minority integration and spatial studies the proposed research takes an original approach by focusing on spatial dimensions of how young minoritised Russian speakers pave their everyday trajectories through the ethnocentric geography of the Latvian society. Beyond the empirical contribution, the project contributes to the critical literature on minority integration in multiethnic societies, as well as to the policy on minority integration in Latvia and the wider post-socialist context. The main outputs of the research will include two academic articles and a policy recommendation report, which will be disseminated targeting scientific and general public, as well as the third sector. The success of the project, as well as the fellow’s further formation as an independent and prominent scholar, will be ensured through the professional guidance of colleagues at IRES in the area studies, cultural anthropology and geography, supplemented by pertinent training, teaching, and supervisory experience. The fellow will bring her interdisciplinary and innovative perspective on the area studies, rooted in the knowledge of political studies, expertise doing ethnographic research in post-Soviet contexts, as well as a critical perspective on the area studies and the minority politics in the Baltic region.