Descripción del proyecto
Una mirada más atenta a las preocupaciones geopolíticas en las tierras altas asiáticas
Las tierras altas asiáticas, desde el Pamir afgano hasta Cachemira, el Tíbet y el noreste de la India, se enfrentan a importantes problemas geopolíticos. Sus remotos emplazamientos son un caldo de cultivo para insurgentes transnacionales, rutas para el tráfico de especies silvestres y de drogas, y hogares de auténticas culturas tribales. Estas regiones carecen de una comprensión conceptual de su posición en un mundo globalmente conectado. Esta falta de comprensión plantea un problema importante, por lo que cada vez es más acuciante la necesidad de profundizar en la comprensión del vínculo entre lejanía y conectividad en estas zonas. En este contexto, el equipo del proyecto Highland Connections, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, pretende abordar las preocupaciones geopolíticas que rodean a las tierras altas asiáticas. En el proyecto se llevarán a cabo trabajos de campo en cuatro entornos transnacionales y se publicarán los resultados en colecciones editadas, artículos y monografías.
Objetivo
Asian highlands from the Afghan Pamir to Kashmir, Tibet and Northeast India are of great geopolitical concern. Remote, yet thoroughly connected to the outside world, they figure in public debate alternately as sanctuaries for transnational insurgents, as trafficking routes in the global drug and wildlife trade, and as realms of authentic tribal culture. Though making headlines around the globe as independent cases, we lack a conceptual understanding of their entanglements, role and position in a globally connected world.
The aim of this project is to lay the conceptual groundwork for a new apprehension of the positionality of remote areas around the globe. It rests on the hypothesis that remoteness and connectivity are not two independent features but constitute each other in particular ways. My objective is to explore the nexus of remoteness and connectivity – a fundamental dynamic that has never been studied from a comparative, transnational perspective. Highland Asia, the chosen study area spanning the mountain regions between Pamir and Eastern Himalaya, transcends the boundaries of nation-states and area studies. It offers a unique vantage point to reveal a bigger picture.
The project is timely. 25 years after the end of the Cold War, Highland Asia experiences a rapid increase in transnational exchange. Old trade routes closed for generations are being re-opened and the quest for natural resources and new markets attracts capital and new actors to the highlands. The hotspots of tension at the edge of Asia’s rising powers are becoming junctures of exchange. The project studies this ongoing but little understood transformation in real time.
The project will be carried out by an international team of four researchers at LMU Munich. Interdisciplinary in outlook but grounded in anthropology, 52 months of fieldwork will be conducted in 4 transnational settings in Highland Asia. Results will be published in 2 edited collections, 20 papers, and individual monographs.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
80539 MUNCHEN
Alemania