CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Kobidze, Nana |
|---|---|
| Title | From Home-Making to State-Making: The Case of Georgian IDPs from Abkhazia |
| Summary | The research delves into the case of internal displacement that occurred as a result of the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict in 1992-1993. Almost 30 years after the forced displacement of Georgians from Abkhazia, the Georgian IDPs still cannot return to their homes. Paradoxically, the quantity of people with the IDP status has been increasing throughout this period as the new generations, who were born years after the conflict and displacement, can also be granted the status of IDP by the Georgian government. The first focal point of the thesis is to understand how and why the social category of IDP continues to be reproduced within generations to this day and what is the role of Georgian IDPs in the Georgian nation-building project. Secondly, the research explores how the memories of Abkhazia and the hope of going back home are being sustained within the generations and create the condition of IDP. For these objectives, I conducted 20 interviews with different generations of Georgian IDPs and one interview with a representative of the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia working on the issues of IDPs from Abkhazia. The research puts special emphasis on the status of IDP and its socio-economic, mnemonic and political functions. I argue that the IDP status granted by the government gives legitimacy to the hope of going back to Abkhazia in the future. At the same time, the status has inscribed temporal and spatial framework in it, positioning the IDPs and the upcoming generations into a specific category different from other Georgian citizens. The thesis demonstrates that the homemaking process of Georgian IDPs is interrelated with the Georgian state-making process – as long as the Georgian IDPs cannot return to their homes in Abkhazia, the Georgian nation-building project will be unrealized. The research contributes to the studies of protracted displacement, memory studies and the anthropology of hope. |
| Supervisor | Kowalski, Alexandra; Çağlar, Ayse |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/kobidze_nana.pdf |
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