The Spatial Context of Intended Transformation

Abstract

A common historical and ethnographical feature of East European countries and former Soviet republics is the spatially intertwined co-existence of ethnically non-homogeneous nations. This unleashed, after the collapse of the communist system, ethnically motivated conflicts over economic resources, political rights and cultural acknowledgment (Offe, 1994, p.143). While outbreaks of ethnic wars in the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia indicated not only the ambiguity of existing or newly drawn state frontiers in a world of increasing globalisation (Beck, 1993, p.121), there started also a process of finding and newly defining ethno-spatial identity (Slovakia, Croatia, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan).