Deciphering Geopolitics in the Vernacular

Deciphering Geopolitics in the Vernacular: Mingrelians and Global Forces - aka the Russian Connection

Geopolitical patterns of explanation are very popular, deeply embedded beliefs and ways of reasoning in Mingrelia (Georgia). At least since the August war in 2008 Georgia resides at the crossroads of world-importance not only in self-perception, but also in the eyes of global actors. This talk is an effort to contextualize geopolitical framing as a mode of place-making and politics of space: how is localisation achieved through geopolitical recurrences? And more precisely, how do very concrete persons, events and places in space – be it locally or globally - become interwoven with each other by (sometimes obscure) connections?