Download or read book Civil Society in Central Asia written by M. Holt Ruffin and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central Asia, known as the home of Tamerlane and the Silk Road, is a crossroads of great cultures and civilizations. In 1991 five nations at the heart of the region—Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan— suddenly became independent. Today they sit strategically between Russia, China, and Iran and hold some of the world’s largest deposits of oil and natural gas. Long-suppressed ethnic identities are finding new expression in language, religion, and occasional civil conflicts. Civil Society in Central Asia is a pathbreaking collection of essays by scholars and activists that illuminates the social and institutional forces shaping this important region’s future. An appendix provides a guide to projects being carried out by local and international groups.
Download or read book Civil Society and Politics in Central Asia written by Charles E. Ziegler and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2015-02-27 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The five Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan constitute an area of increasing importance in global politics. The region currently serves as the main route for transporting American and NATO supplies and personnel into Afghanistan. Its Turkic Muslim peoples share ethnic and religious roots with China's Uighurs in neighboring Xinjiang, where some Uighurs have connections to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, fueling Beijing's already acute fears of terrorism and separatism. Perhaps most importantly, the Caspian basin holds immense reserves of oil and natural gas. Countries rich in hydrocarbons—like Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—can benefit greatly from this wealth, but often they must rely on foreign companies (usually backed by foreign governments) to develop these resources. Revolts in Kyrgyzstan (in 2005 and 2010) and Uzbekistan (in 2005); Tajikistan's civil war (in the 1990s); and continued terrorist incidents (2010–2011), strikes, and suicide bombings in Kazakhstan (in 2011) have contributed to concerns about stability in the region. In Civil Society and Politics in Central Asia, a prominent group of scholars assesses both the area's manifold problems and its emerging potential, examining the often uneasy relationship between its states and the societies they govern. A meticulously in-depth study, the volume demonstrates the fascinating cultural complexity and diversity of Central Asia. Small, landlocked, and surrounded by larger powers, Central Asian nations have become adept at playing their neighbors against each other in order to maximize their own abilities to maneuver. The essays in this book look beyond the surface of Central Asian politics to discover the forces that are working for political change and continuity in this critical region of the world.
Download or read book The Struggle for Civil Society in Central Asia written by Charles Buxton and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, NGOs and civil society (CS) actors in Central Asia found themselves struggling to set up new organizations that would fight for democracy, sustainable development and social justice. It was a time of great hopes, disappointments and interrupted progress for a region largely neglected by the powerful global actors. The Struggle for Civil Society in Central Asia describes the gradual establishment of the CS sector in Central Asia despite the economic and social crises that marked the first decade of independence in the region. It shows how the neo-liberal policies of international agencies failed to spur progress in the 1990s and how national government control gradually re-asserted itself after 2000. The book also covers the effects of 9/11 on CS, the impact of colored revolutions and the challenges that civil society organizations face today.
Download or read book Social Capital Construction and Governance in Central Asia written by Timur Dadabaev and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-28 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This cutting edge collection focuses on the nature of civil society and its role in facilitating governance in Central Asia, considering local implications related to the concept of social capital and civil society in the Uzbek context. It discusses the complexity of the notion of social capital in post-Soviet Uzbekistan, detailing the challenges and pressures facing the Uzbek people.Challenging prevailing views on post-Soviet political transitions, the book demonstrates that successful transition to democracy and rule of law cannot be accomplished unless the concerns, fears, frustrations and local understandings of the desired political system are heard, registered and carefully interpreted. Offering a comparative study of civil society and social capital in Asia, this collection is a key read not only for scholars and students in civil governance and post-soviet transitions, but also aid agencies, foreign governments, and international organisations working with civil society groups.
Download or read book The Development of Civil Society in Central Asia written by Janice Giffen and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the applicability and use of civil society, both as a concept and in practice, in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The volume examines whether civil society organisations (CSOs) are a progressive force for change, or a safety net. Various forms of CSOs are investigated: NGOs and community based organisations, trade unions, political parties and religious groups, as well as more long-standing soviet and traditional institutions and practices. The book contains lessons and perspectives about civil society growth across time, and considers future directions.
Download or read book Growing Civil Society in Central Asia written by Anne Garbutt and published by . This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Nonprofit Sector in Eastern Europe Russia and Central Asia written by David Horton Smith and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nonprofit Sector in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia uniquely provides a timely overview of research on the nonprofit sector and nonprofit organizations in eleven former Soviet republics, with each central chapter written by local experts.
Download or read book U S Policy in Central Asia written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Central Asia written by Vladimir Fedorenko and published by Rethink Institute. This book was released on 2012 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Recently there was a wave of celebration of the 20th anniversary of independence in all Central Asian states, yet their nation building process is not complete and the perception of the national identity is still distorted. By its nature national identity should bring people together and unite them around common values and goals, in Central Asian states, however; national identity, conceived on ethnic basis, is a divisive force fragmenting people along the lines of ethnicity, religion, language, birth place, and social status. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asian republics--Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzsta--faced the difficult task of state- and nation-building. Although every Central Asian nation had its own challenges determined by its geography, ethnic and cultural composition, availability of natural resources and other factors, all of them faced same complexity that hindered the attaining of unity in those countries. As a result of abrupt dissolution of the Soviet Union, politically unstable, economically weak and interdependent, institutionally unprepared, and socially disorientated Central Asian states were in a serious crisis. In order to forge a new national identity, the political elites in all five Central Asian states decided to implement a nation building policy based on ethnicity. Ethnic nationalism was convenient and promising strategy capable of providing a sense of stability by uniting majority groups around the common and powerful link of ethnicity. In order to increase people's attachment to these new national identities, attractive myths regarding ethnic identities were created. In all of the Central Asian countries, the strategy of creating a national myth was similar. It consisted of rewriting history in order to show a strong attachment of the majority group to the present geographical location of the country as well as of choosing a historical figure that boosted the national pride of the dominant ethnic group. Consequently, Uzbeks have been putting emphasis on being successors of the famous conqueror Tamerlane who established Timurid Empire, Kyrgyz have been promoting the image of the mythical hero Manas, and Tajiks have been rediscovering their history that was linked to the Samanid Empire ruled by Ismail Samani, Kazakhs have been promoting nomadic culture and traditions, and Turkmens have been focusing on the Turkmen spiritual leader Magtymguly Pyragy. However, an important barrier to the nation building process around single ethnicity is the fact that most Central Asian states are multiethnic and multicultural societies. Thus, while ethnic nationalism provides the majority group a sense of belonging to the nation, minority ethnic groups in Central Asia do not easily embrace this new national identity and feel excluded from the nation building process. Moreover, majority ethnic groups also realize their dominance and often treat minorities unjustly. This creates tension and conflicts among the different ethnic groups. This paper addresses the question of how Central Asian societies can move away from divisive to inclusive form of nationalism"--Summary.
Download or read book Politics of Modern Central Asia written by Bhavna Dave and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The focus for this set encompasses the region as a whole, as well as each individual country, comprising the Soviet legacy, cultural and social institutions, modern economic and political transition, and geopolitics and security.
Download or read book U S Policy in Central Asia written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Incomplete State Building in Central Asia written by Viktoria Akchurina and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-10-19 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about transformation of the state and an incomplete state-building. It defies the transitology assumption of continuity, linearity and dichotomy of formal and informal in the transformation of the state. Contrary to the conventional approaches, it claims that any social order or its political scaffolding, the state, is always incomplete and we need to develop cognitive maps to better understand that incompleteness. It reflects on the social practices, processes and patterns that evolve as a non-linear result of three sets of factors: those that are historical, external, and elite-driven. Three Central Asian states - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan - are examined here comparatively as case studies, as Central Asia represents an interesting terrain to challenge conventional understanding of the state. Specifically, the book captures a paradox at hand: how come three states, which made different political, economic, cultural, and social choices at the outset of their independence in the 1990s, have ended up as so-called “weak states” in the 2000s and onwards? This puzzle can be better understood through looking at the relationship among three main sets of factors that shape state-building processes, such as history, external actors, and local elites. This book applies an interdisciplinary approach, combining political anthropology, political economy, sociology, and political science. It helps conceptualize and understand social and political order beyond the “failed state” paradigm
Download or read book Visions of Development in Central Asia written by Noor O’Neill Borbieva and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Visions of Development in Central Asia: Revitalizing the Culture Concept, Noor O’Neill Borbieva reflects on anthropology’s withdrawal from discussions about culture and the parallel rise of the intellectually and politically problematic discourse of “culture matters thinking,” or CMT. CMT asserts that cultures are homogeneous and that the dominant values of its culture determine a state’s socioeconomic and political trajectories. Drawing on practice theory, ecological psychology, complexity science, and poststructuralism, Borbieva urges anthropologists to revisit debates about culture in order to counteract the influence of simplistic formulations such as CMT. Through an examination of ethnographic material from Kyrgyzstan, gathered during the years she worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer and as an anthropologist, Borbieva examines how debates about culture shaped the development sector’s agenda in Central Asia. She argues that mainstream discussions of culture not only misunderstand the cultural basis of human diversity but also threaten that diversity by promoting a one-size-fits-all vision of well-being. Borbieva suggests an alternative vision, one that recognizes the profound complexity of human sociality and embraces the many forms of human thriving that grow out of our cultural differences.
Download or read book Democracy in Central Asia written by Mariya Y. Omelicheva and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2015-07-21 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Promoting democracy has long been a priority of Western foreign policy. In practice, however, international attempts to expand representative forms of government have been inconsistent and are often perceived in the West to have been failures. The states
Download or read book Kyrgyzstan written by John Anderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born out of the collapse of the USSR, Kyrgyzstan has been notable for its struggle to develop a pluralist polity and free market, an attempt that distinguishes it from some of its more authoritarian neighbors. This volume introduces students and businessmen to this most attractive of republics, offering an overview of its history, politics, economic development, and place in the international community. In particular, it focuses on the problematic nature of political development, with democratic and pluralist impulses struggling to survive against the dominance of more traditional forms of governance.
Download or read book Central Asia and the Caucasus written by Touraj Atabaki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-11-10 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of linkages have been established between newly independent Central Asian states, or populations within them, and diaspora ethnic groups. This book explores the roles that diaspora communities play in the recent and ongoing emergence of national identities in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The loyalties of these communities are divided between their countries of residence and those states that serve as homeland of their particular ethno-cultural nation, and are further complicated by connections with contested transnational notions of common cultures and 'peoples'. Written by highly respected experts in the field, the book addresses issues such as nationalism, conflict, population movement, global civil society, Muslim communities in China and relations between the new nation-states and Russia. This innovative book will interest students and researchers of transnationalism and Central Asian studies.
Download or read book The Politics of Transition in Central Asia and the Caucasus written by Amanda E Wooden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-06-08 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most books on the Caucasus and Central Asia are country-by-country studies. This book, on the other hand, fills a gap in Central Eurasian studies as one of the few comparative case study books on Central Eurasia, covering both the Caucasus and Central Asia; it considers key themes right across the two regions highlighting both political change and continuity. Comparative case study chapters, written by regional experts from a variety of methodological backgrounds, provide historical context, and evaluate Soviet political legacies and emerging policy outcomes. Key topics include: the varied types and sources of authoritarianism; political opposition and protest politics; predetermined outcomes of post-Soviet economic choices; social and stability impacts of natural resource wealth; variations in educational reform; international norm influence on gender policy and the power of human rights activists. Overall, the book provides a thorough, up-to-date overview of what is increasingly becoming a significant area of concern.
