Description
The war in Ukraine forced mixed ethnicity neighbourhood communities in Riga, Latvia to juggle complex local relationships uncovering the embeddedness and belonging to twisted and unresolved regional histories. In this article, I contend that community members were participating in the establishment of ethnic boundaries at a communal level rather than on a state level. These activities were greatly influenced equally by ethnonational local politics, but also by Russian politics and efforts by the European Union over several years to promote democracy and foster tolerance towards minority groups in Latvia. Both, the dominant ethnic group was engaging in social closure practices, as well as the minority groups recognized the boundaries and treated them attentively. The context of war, contributed to hardening of the boundaries by reinstating them by some, but actively avoiding them by others, attributing rising ethnic tensions to political sphere that didn’t affect the community relations. The article is based on the analysis of data from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in neighbourhoods in Riga, Latvia over the course of 6 months. Anthropological methods, such as ethnographic fieldwork, allow to recognize the social bonds that have a major role in the process of working through major geopolitical shifts within the society.| Period | 28 Jun 2024 |
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| Event title | RUTA Inaugural Conference 2024 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Carpathian Muuntains, UkraineShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |