Vol. 9 No. 1 (2025): Journal of Autonomy and Security Studies

Foreword

Scholarly work in the social sciences is by definition related to conceptual and theoretical understandings – more or less well crafted – which frame the analysis of processes and specific phenomena. To develop such understandings has to have, at least to some extent, a consensus component.

At the same time, it is a hallmark of science to be questioning its own insights, both when it comes to a general conceptual praxis, and when it comes to theoretical ambitions about the nature of things.

A text that is questioning a bit of what scholars in the field have often taken for granted, is the article by Alexander Osipov on the resilience of territorial autonomy. It takes on both theoretical positions about, as well as a counter-intuitive understanding of, an expected but not confirmed fate of autonomous territories.

The article is a reminder of the necessity to study cases that at some level challenge our established understandings – in this case of the conditions for the formation and continued existence of territorial autonomies.

I wish you all a stimulating read!

Kjell-Åke Nordquist,  Editor-in-Chief