The Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are characterised by post-conflict situations, authoritarian forms of government, ethnic tensions, gross social injustices and strong migration dynamics. So it is no wonder that "security" is a dominant issue for people in these states. Yet the social scientific research into security matters in Central Asia is almost exclusively concerned with national and international threat perceptions across the region, i.e. with security of and for states. This is even the case in critical political science, with its "securitization" approach. The research at BICC, by contrast, seeks to explore the other side of the "security coin". This project examines the everyday practices of people coping with the security challenges that regularly confront them. The question guiding our research is: What do people think needs protecting? What do they consider threatening? And, how do these perceptions influence their everyday lives?
Launched in summer 2015, the project is entitled "Forms of local security in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan—The emergence of securityscapes" and is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The approach is interdisciplinary and the methodology is rooted in intensive and long-term field research. The BICC team is working closely with academic partners on the ground in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. There is also an additional special focus on the training of young academics in Central Asia.