Project description
Kinship dynamics in the Xinjiang Uyghur region’s minorities
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is one of the most heavily surveilled areas in the world. How have years of policing, surveillance, and assimilation by the Chinese state affected the social life of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Hui, and other minorities in the region? The ERC-funded NEWXUAR project will investigate the current situation and changes since the 2014 People’s War on Terror. As the first project to focus on kinship in this context, it will assess the effects of government policies, state violence, and economic changes. The project will counter political exploitation, develop a modern theory of kinship and state interactions in colonial settings, and set new academic standards in XUAR studies and remote ethnographic methods.
Objective
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is one of the most surveilled and restricted areas in the world and has recently been at the centre of intense information wars, geopolitics and propaganda. How has a decade of policing, surveillance, mass incarceration and assimilation by the Chinese state changed social life for Uyghurs, Kazakh, Hui and other minoritised people in the region?
This project reveals the current situation and the changes that have occurred since the launch of the People's War on Terror in XUAR/ET in 2014. In order to provide a deep understanding of the changes from a local on-the-ground perspective, we approach it from a kinship perspective, focussing on the interaction between kinship and the state in a number of key areas of daily life. This lets us gauge the on-the-ground effects of government policies, state violence and economic transformations through accessible and not overly sensitive data.
Access to the region is still difficult and conventional fieldwork is impossible due to ethical concerns of endangering those we work with. The project therefore utilises remote ethnography and other hybrid methods with particular attention to ethics, safety and data security. NEWXUAR is the first project to centre kinship and also the first to employ a systematically remote-hybrid methodology and to explicitly tackle the epistemological difficulties of the geopolitical tensions around the area and our own positionality in them head on.
NEWXUAR will counter political utilisation of the region and further useful solutions. The project will also create a modern theory of kinship and the state in colonial contexts and tests remote ethnographic methodology for contexts with limited access and a high degree of risk. The project will establish a new academic standard in XUAR/ET studies, kinship studies and remote ethnographic methods.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
771 47 Olomouc
Czechia
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.