RESEARCH OF BORDERS AND FRONTIER COMMUNITIES
Border studies have been one of the main research activities at CISR. Initially, studies of ethnic groups (ethnic boundaries) were developed within the framework of our "Ethnicity and Migration" research. However, since the middle of the 1990s, research on border issues, including border communities, has become an independent research initiative. Currently, a number of CISR researchers work in the interdisciplinary field of Border Studies, focusing on social processes in Russian borderlands and neighbouring territories.
The researchers implemented a number of projects on the Russian-Estonian borderland. Pilot research on the borderland in the south of Russia (Krasnodar region), Abkhazia and Georgia was also carried out. At present, a project on the Russian-Mongolian border has been realised.
CISR also conducted two international conferences related to border studies: "Nomadic Borders" (Narva, Estonia, 1998) and "Shifting Borders" (St. Petersburg, 2000).
The collection of articles ("Nomadic Borders", edited by Olga Brednikova and Viktor Voronkov. CISR. Working Papers. 1999. Vol. 7) was issued based on the conference in Narva.