Download or read book Researching Central Asia written by Jasmin Dall'Agnola and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-10-13 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book explores some of the struggles and challenges that researchers and practitioners face when conducting research in the Central Asian research setting. Written for scholars still in the planning stages of their research, it addresses key questions, including: How shall we problematize and reconceptualize the concept of positionality through lenses of local voices from the region? How does practitioners’ and scholars’ positionality contribute to their experiences of inclusion, exclusion, and access to the field? How do scholars navigate issues of personal safety and mental well-being in the more closely monitored societies of Central Asia? The book includes contributors from both Central Asia and Western countries, paying particular attention to the ways researchers’ subjectivity shape how they are received in the region, which, in turn, influences how they write about and disseminate their research. In featuring an even greater variety of voices, this book fills an important gap in the literature on field research and knowledge production in and on Central Asia.
Download or read book Education in Central Asia written by Denise Egéa and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-14 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together internationally prominent scholars renowned for their work on post-Soviet republics, as well as outstanding emerging scholars native of Central Asia in order to discuss the state of education in the Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Drawing on their individual contexts and research, the authors offer analyses and critiques of some of the social, political, and economic issues in education in their respective countries, and some insights about how local actions engage with the challenges and problems, as well as with the possibilities and opportunities they face. Since gaining their independence in 1991, the five republics of Central Asia have been undergoing some enormous political, social, linguistic, cultural, and economic changes, even as we write. This collection shows that researchers are increasingly interested in exploring the development of education in this part of the world. In these countries, education plays a significant role in transitioning from centrally planned to market economies and is seen as the key resource to facilitate entry into the global competitiveness sphere. This book will be of particular interest to educators, researchers, and policy makers engaged in research or with a particular interest in curricula, and education systems and reforms, and to undergraduate and graduate students studying and researching education in Central Asia or in other post-Soviet contexts.
Download or read book Land of Strangers written by Eric Schluessel and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eric Schluessel explores the late nineteenth-century encounter between Chinese power and a Muslim society through the struggles of ordinary people in the oasis of Turpan. He traces the emergence of new struggles around essential questions of identity, recasting the attempted transformation of Xinjiang as a distinctly Chinese form of colonialism.
Download or read book Globalization on the Margins written by Iveta Silova and published by IAP. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in Globalization on the Margins explore the continuities and changes in Central Asian education development since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Reflecting on two decades of post-socialist transformations, they reveal that education systems in Central Asia responded to the rapidly changing political, economic, and social environment in profoundly new and unique ways. Some countries moved towards Western models, others went backwards, and still others followed entirely new trajectories. Yet, elements of the “old” system remain. Rather than viewing these post-Soviet transformations in isolation, Globalization on the Margins places its analyses within the global context by reflecting on the interaction between Soviet legacies and global education reform pressures in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Instead of portraying the transition process as the influx of Western ideas into the region, the authors provide new lenses to critically examine the multidirectional flow of ideas, concepts, and reform models within Central Asia. Notwithstanding the variety of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and conceptual lenses, the authors have one thing in common: both individually and collectively, they reveal the complexity and uncertainty of the post-Soviet transformations. By highlighting the political nature of the transformation processes and the uniqueness of historical, political, social, and cultural contexts of each particular country, Globalization on the Margins portrays post-Soviet education transformations as complex, multidimensional, and uncertain processes.
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 Tashkent written by Paul Michael Stronski and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-09-19 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Stronski tells the fascinating story of Tashkent, an ethnically diverse, primarily Muslim city that became the prototype for the Soviet-era reimagining of urban centers in Central Asia. Based on extensive research in Russian and Uzbek archives, Stronski shows us how Soviet officials, planners, and architects strived to integrate local ethnic traditions and socialist ideology into a newly constructed urban space and propaganda showcase. The Soviets planned to transform Tashkent from a "feudal city" of the tsarist era into a "flourishing garden," replete with fountains, a lakeside resort, modern roadways, schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, and of course, factories. The city was intended to be a shining example to the world of the successful assimilation of a distinctly non-Russian city and its citizens through the catalyst of socialism. As Stronski reveals, the physical building of this Soviet city was not an end in itself, but rather a means to change the people and their society. Stronski analyzes how the local population of Tashkent reacted to, resisted, and eventually acquiesced to the city's socialist transformation. He records their experiences of the Great Terror, World War II, Stalin's death, and the developments of the Krushchev and Brezhnev eras up until the earthquake of 1966, which leveled large parts of the city. Stronski finds that the Soviets established a legitimacy that transformed Tashkent and its people into one of the more stalwart supporters of the regime through years of political and cultural changes and finally during the upheavals of glasnost.
Download or read book Order at the Bazaar written by Regine A. Spector and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Order at the Bazaar delves into the role of bazaars in the political economy and development of Central Asia. Bazaars are the economic bedrock for many throughout the region—they are the entrepreneurial hubs of Central Asia. However, they are often regarded as mafia-governed environments that are largely populated by the dispossessed. By immersing herself in the bazaars of Kyrgyzstan, Regine A. Spector learned that some are rather best characterized as islands of order in a chaotic national context. Spector draws on interviews, archival sources, and participant observation to show how traders, landowners, and municipal officials create order in the absence of a coherent government apparatus and bureaucratic state. Merchants have adapted Soviet institutions, including trade unions, and pre-Soviet practices, such as using village elders as the arbiters of disputes, to the urban bazaar by building and asserting their own authority. Spector’s findings have relevance beyond the bazaars and borders of one small country; they teach us how economic development operates when the rule of law is weak.
Download or read book Practices of Traditionalization in Central Asia written by Judith Beyer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practices of Traditionalization in Central Asia focuses on how tradition is ‘everyday-ified’ in contemporary Central Asia, including Tatarstan and Tibet, and what people seek to achieve in its name. The case studies range from political demonstrations and industrial workers’ gatherings to institutions of religious education, minority communities, weddings, and the Internet. In this volume we regard tradition as a practice that needs to be explored in its institutional and interactional context at a particular time, rather than as a reliable guide to the past: tradition can only be judged from the present; it is an interpretative concept, not a descriptive one. While the scholarly debate has so far centered on what tradition entails and what it does not, including the question of invention and ownership, less attention has been devoted to investigating how tradition is enacted, enforced, or motivated – in short, how it ‘gets done.’ In Central Asia, practices of traditionalization are closely related to the transformation of the socialist order and the emergence of highly stratified societies. This volume asks: When does tradition emerge as a line of argumentation, who are the actors invoking it and how is it being (materially) manifested? Practices of Traditionalization in Central Asia will be of great interest to scholars of Central Asia, Anthropology, History, Political Science, and Sociology. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Central Asian Survey.
Download or read book Mapping the Media and Communication Landscape of Central Asia written by Elira Turdubaeva and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-02-16 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Central Asian post-independence media and communication industries, professional practices, education, persisting and evolving values, and traditions remain critically understudied with a notable scarcity of research and scholarly publications on the complex and increasingly changing communicative ecology landscape of this region. Mapping the Media and Communication Landscape of Central Asia: An Anthology of Emerging and Contemporary Issues addresses this gap in literature by exploring, analyzing, and shedding light to the field, practice, research and critical inquiry of media and mass communication in four countries in Central Asia—Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. This book includes local authors as well as new and emerging researchers from this region to contextualize the issues explored and provide a supportive dialogue between different points of view.
Download or read book China s Strategy Toward South and Central Asia written by Andrew Scobell and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This study analyzes what is driving China's Central Asia and Afghanistan-Pakistan policies, identifies China's overarching strategy, examines the extent of Chinese activities in the region, and assesses their implications for the United States. The authors contend that China's response to the complex challenges on its western borders during the past two decades has been to adopt an "Empty Fortress" strategy, whereby China boldly projects an image of considerable strength in Central and South Asia to mask serious frailty. They conclude that China is not a major threat to U.S. interests in Central Asia, Afghanistan, or Pakistan and is unlikely to pose one in the near future."--"Abstract" on web page.
Download or read book Russia s Limit of Advance written by Ben Connable and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-15 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the time it invaded Crimea in 2014, Russia seemed to have regained a significant portion of the military power it lost after the fall of the Soviet Union, reemerging as a perceived threat to democracy. But how capable is Russia of deploying and sustaining ground combat forces farther from its borders? An analysis of notional ground deployment scenarios constructed from real-world, open-source data, along with a review of historical cases spanning the Soviet and post-Soviet eras, reveals strengths and limitations of Russia's military infrastructure. In fact, despite Russia's status as a reemerging global military power, its ground force deployment capability is strong only near its western border and within range of its air defenses. Although it poses a credible threat to Eastern Europe, its ability to deploy ground combat units drops off sharply as geographic distance increases. Limited forces and transportation assets, a lack of international support, and an insufficient ability to sustain its deployed forces also prevent Russia from regaining its Soviet-era deployment capacity. This report presents additional detail on the notional scenarios that informed the analysis of Russian ground force deployment capabilities. The scenarios range from border deployments to long-range overseas deployments and were designed to test the limits of Russia's capacity to deploy forces and equipment. They were not necessarily chosen to reflect the probability or political feasibility of an actual Russian deployment.
Download or read book China s Foreign Aid and Government Sponsored Investment Activities written by Charles Jr. Wolf and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2013-09-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the world's second largest economy, China has the capacity to engage in substantial programs of development assistance and government investment in any and all of the emerging-market countries. RAND researchers assessed the scale, trends, and composition of these programs in 93 countries in six regions: Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia.
Download or read book Counterterrorism Policies in Central Asia written by Mariya Y. Omelicheva and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the dangerous tendency of counterterrorism policies of the Central Asian states to grow more alike amid propensities for divergence and attributes this trend to the impact of the social context in which these states operate. It underscores the importance of international setting that shapes governments’ perceptions of terrorism and their counterterrorism policies.
Download or read book The Long Game on the Silk Road written by S. Frederick Starr and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that American and European policies toward Central Asia and the Caucasus suffer from both conceptual and structural impediments. It traces the framework of Western policies to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, which resulted in the stovepiping of relations into political, economic, and democracy categories – and in often uncoordinated or contradictory policies. While the authors embrace the goal of promoting human rights and democracy, they argue that the antagonistic methods adopted to advance this goal have proven counter-productive. They propose that Western governments work with the regional states rather than on or against them; and that instead of focusing directly on political systems, policies should focus on developing the quality of governance and help build institutions that will be building blocks of rule of law and democracy in the long term. The authors also argue that Western leaders have largely failed to grasp the significance of this region, relegated it to a subordinate status and thus damaging western interests. The development of sovereign, economically strong, and effectively self-governing states in the Caucasus and Central Asia is an important goal in its own right; the book stresses the importance of a region where the development and preservation of secular statehood could become a model for the entire Muslim world.
Download or read book The Family in Central Asia written by Sophie Roche and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-08-10 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Die Reihe Islamkundliche Untersuchungen wurde 1969 im Klaus Schwarz Verlag begründet und hat sich zu einem der wichtigsten Publikationsorgane der Islamwissenschaft in Deutschland entwickelt. Die über 330 Bände widmen sich der Geschichte, Kultur und den Gesellschaften Nordafrikas, des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens sowie Zentral-, Süd- und Südost-Asiens.
Download or read book EU Central Asian Interactions written by Rick Fawn and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-07-12 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From limited interactions in the early 1990s, the EU and Central Asia now consider each other to be increasingly important. This book includes 12 chapters written by seasoned and policy-engaged researchers from across Eurasia and the wider world that analyse multiple levels of mutual interactions, understandings and misunderstandings across a range of policy areas. It shows why and in what ways exactly the EU and Central Asia matter to each other and why policymakers and researchers should pay more attention to their interactions. Central Asia falls under the broader external relations and security agenda of the EU, and over years it provided a testing ground for many EU policies, including the priority ones of region-building and resilience promotion. Looking at the EU, in turn, informs as to how Central Asian actors interact with external partners of the region, and how that can influence national policy agendas and consequently everyday life – bringing new approaches, insights and evidence also to the wide field of EU studies. This book is of key interest to scholars, practitioners and students of Central Asian history and politics, EU foreign policy, EU-Central Asia relations, and more broadly of EU studies, International Relations, regionalism and interregionalism as well as security studies. The chapters in this book were published over three issues of Central Asian Survey.
Download or read book Central Asia in a Multipolar World written by Jakob Lempp and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook-style edited volume discusses historical, but predominantly current political, economic, and societal trends in Central Asia comprising Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The five countries exhibit many cultural and historical commonalities and face similar internal and external challenges. Despite different transformation paths and frequent intra-regional tensions, a common regional identity has emerged in the countries since gaining their independence in 1991. Besides covering their political systems, a variety of topics such as human rights, media, terrorism, and civil society are addressed. As well, bilateral relations with seven external actors are examined. Lastly, the authors explore the opportunities and limitations of institutionalized regional cooperation in various fields of action.
