PORTFOLIO

This small conference on „Peripheries“, which will be organised in Tbilisi, brings together scholars from different disciplines and regions (particularly from the Southern Caucasus – itself a «peripheral» region when looking at it from European «centres») to think about the multiples meanings of the narrative „periphery” which makes only sense in the context of the centre – periphery distinction.

This is a field which has been and is still neglected by social sciences and humanities. Thinking and Re-thinking the meanings of «periphery» in Tbilisi is particularly relevant at a critical moment when the country is trying to redefine its geopolitical position and to „narrow” its distance towards Europe. And, as we could add here, when multiple crises in Europe are questioning also existing patterns of centre – periphery relations in Europe (Who are the «centres», who the «peripheries»?) This is only one aspect of peripheries which can be analysed in many different perspectives: the relation centre – periphery is relevant for geography (space relations - cities and their peripheries); it is important in an economic and social perspective (the problem of inclusion / exclusion of regions from centres of modernity or globalisation); it is focussed by historiography (shifting relations between centres and their peripheries), by law and of course particularly by sociological functional theories (where function system have their centres and peripheries). In any case the narrative peripheries with its reference to centres is a focal point cross cutting disciplines and with the potential to undermine established differences and concepts in academia.

Die Konferenz wurde erfolgreich am 20./21. Mai 2016 in Georgien durchgeführt und hat sowohl ausgewiesene als auch jüngere Forschende aus verschiedenen Disziplinen zusammengeführt sowie den Austausch und die Besprechung des Buchprojekts „Peripheries“ ermöglicht.

Eine dazugehörige Publikation ist in der Reihe „Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe“ für 2017 vorgesehen.