image: Factory cranes from a window in an abandoned building in a former military garrison in Bolshoi Kamen, Russia. Photo by Dominic Martin.
Credit: Dominic Martin
More images and video clips are available via the link in the Notes section
Abandoned by the state, capital and people, the ‘emptying’ of places across Europe is increasingly common. At the epicentre of this growing phenomenon are villages and towns in Eastern Europe and Russia, where the transition from socialism to capitalism has expelled people and places from investment and the care of the state – changes that, in some places, have been further intensified by war.
Findings from a five-year research project led by anthropologists at the University of Oxford and funded by the European Research Council (ERC) unpack the intersecting forces driving this radical change. The research also reveals what it means to live in and govern emptying places, as well as what these findings can tell us about growing disillusionment with the state by people who feel ‘left behind’ across Europe.
Captured in a unique collection of essays, videos, films and images, these insights, gained through ethnographic research in the Latvian borderlands, Armenian highlands, central Ukraine and the Russian Far East, document what the residents of these places have to say about what it means, and how it feels, to live with emptiness.
Findings show that:
- Emptiness is a political decision rather than an inevitable consequence of market forces, with people and places expelled from investment and state care, while resources are concentrated elsewhere, usually in cities.
- Experiences of abandonment contribute to political radicalisation. Researchers found an overall radicalisation among people living in emptying places, spanning the political left and right and manifesting in different ways. Some residents viewed imperial restoration or military power as the solution to the decline of their communities.
- Emptiness is closely connected to large-scale emigration. Lack of investment and economic opportunity, and changes to border regimes, have contributed to people leaving in search of opportunities in Western Europe.
- Local policy cannot reverse decline. Attempts to address decline with local-level policy can improve quality of life but cannot lead to fundamental changes in employment opportunities, freedom of movement or public services.
- Communities develop different ways of living with emptiness. Residents adapt their lives by repairing buildings with industrial scraps, foraging for food and building materials, remaking social relationships, and trying to make sense of their radically changing world. While there are similarities in how communities respond, there are variations as the places people live in become reforested areas, militarised zones or heritage sites. For example, in Russia, a community of Old Believers views emptying places as a spiritual refuge, while in Armenia, family and social networks, rather than state policies, sustain communities and places.
Although conducted in post-socialist societies, the research offers wider lessons for Europe at a time when people, from retired industrial workers to students, feel ‘left behind’ by the state.
Dr Dace Dzenovska, Lead Researcher and Associate Professor in Anthropology of Migration at the University of Oxford, said: “Although the research focuses on what we call ‘post-socialist emptiness’, it can serve as a lens for thinking about ‘left behind’ places across Europe. For example, why is it that in Eastern Europe deindustrialisation leads to emigration, whereas in England, in places like Blackpool, it has resulted in a concentration of poverty? By making sense of life elsewhere, anthropology invites critical reflection on one’s own society.”
The research shows that examining how people experience and respond to emptiness can offer important insights into political disillusionment, the appeal of radical political alternatives, and a growing sense among some communities that they have been excluded from the prospect of a better collective future.
Dr Dace Dzenovska added: “While the decline or abandonment of places has happened before, today’s emptiness comes at a time dominated by finance capitalism, worldwide securitisation, and the disappearance of the promise of a better future. Instead of being incorporated into the market economy and welfare networks, as was the case in the heyday of modernity, people and places are being expelled from capital and the care of the state. Some people can move, while others are stuck in place. This makes the lived experience of emptiness strikingly new.”
The research publication Living Emptiness: Place, Power, and Meaning-Making from the Baltic to the Russian Far East (Stanford University Press) is available open access. It is the culmination of ‘Emptiness: Living Capitalism and Democracy After (Post)Socialism’, a research project funded by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and led by the University of Oxford's Centre for Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) and School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME).
Notes to editors
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Project funding
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 865976)
About COMPAS
The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) is a research centre based within the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. Since 2003, COMPAS has established an international reputation for original research and policy relevance. It undertakes multi-disciplinary research, publication, teaching, and user engagement activities with a broad set of academic and non-academic users worldwide, and houses long-standing initiatives The Global Exchange on Migration and Diversity, and The Migration Observatory.
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DOI
Article Title
Living Emptiness: Place, Power, and Meaning-Making from the Baltic to the Russian Far East