State performance and biosocial relatedness

As intended in the project proposal, this project yielded a wealth of innovative and so-far unavailable empirical information while engaging in the current cutting-edge theoretical debates. The project provides unprecedented depth of understanding of how the state is “done” or performed in relation to kinship. The
project team worked towards enriching the existing knowledge and understanding at two levels simultaneously: the advancement of theoretical knowledge regarding state performance and kinship in general as well as filling the gap in the knowledge of kinship specifically in Latvia. At both levels significant advancements have been achieved. The quantitative results have surpassed the numbers envisaged in the plan regarding the empirical data-gathering as well as publications and conference attendance. The project has
laid grounds also for future work by providing material for publications in the future.
Following the plan, the team gathered empirical data by use of three main methods (ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, and text analysis) and looked at the problem through five different dimensions
ranging from everyday interaction to projections of future. Altogether the project researchers spent more than 100 days of ethnographic fieldwork, conducted 80 semi-structured interviews and analysed numerous documents (laws, archive materials, policy documents, etc).