Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has deeply shaken the geographical imaginaries across Eastern Europe and Eurasia. In particular, it calls into question the notion of “in-betweenness”, which started being applied in the early 2010s to countries in the EU’s and Russia’s neighbourhoods. These were predominantly regarded as passive objects of rivalry, with limited capacities to influence their future and that of their region. Yet, this narrow understanding is ill-equipped to make sense of the complex upheavals unfolding in the region since the 2020s.

This workshop seeks to enlarge the scope of research on “in-betweenness” in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia by incorporating multiple actors and diverse units and levels of analysis, thereby shifting the focus away from “states” and “great powers”. Actors and units of analysis can range from states/state actors and sub-states/sub-state actors to migrants, émigrés and diaspora and marginalized or vulnerable groups, among others. Levels of analysis can vary from the local to the trans- or international. In doing so, the workshop also seeks to better understand how agency can emerge from a state of in-betweenness. 

Liminality, understood as a state of transition and ambiguity – both temporally and spatially – has become an increasingly appealing concept to study in-betweenness. In line with this growing scholarship, this workshop seeks to assess the value of applying the concept of liminality – either by itself or in dialogue with other concepts –  to better understand the dynamics unfolding in transforming spaces, where unpredictability and undecidedness prevail. It will bring together original and interdisciplinary contributions to be then published as part of a special issue.