Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia

Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia PDF Author: Catharine Alexander
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135392080
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
Capturing a unique historical moment, this book examines the changes in urban life since the collapse of the Soviet Union from an ethnographic perspective, thus addressing significant gaps in the literature on cities, Central Asia and post-socialism. It encompasses Tashkent, Almaty, Astana and Ulan-Ude: four cities with quite different responses to the fall of the Soviet Union. Each chapter takes a theme of central significance across this huge geographical terrain, addresses it through one city and contextualizes it by reference to the other sites in this volume. The structure of the book moves from nostalgia and memories of the Soviet past to examine how current changes are being experienced and imagined through the shifting materialities, temporalities and political economies of urban life. Privatization is giving rise to new social geographies, while ethnic and religious sensibilities are creating emergent networks of sacred sites. But, however much ideologies are changing, cities also provide a constant lived mnemonic of lost configurations of ideology and practice, acting as signposts to bankrupted futures. Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia provides a detailed account of the changing nature of urban life in post-Soviet Asia, clearly elucidating the centrality of these urban transformations to citizens’ understandings of their own socio-economic condition.

Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia

Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia PDF Author: Catharine Alexander
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135392080
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 429

Get Book

Book Description
Capturing a unique historical moment, this book examines the changes in urban life since the collapse of the Soviet Union from an ethnographic perspective, thus addressing significant gaps in the literature on cities, Central Asia and post-socialism. It encompasses Tashkent, Almaty, Astana and Ulan-Ude: four cities with quite different responses to the fall of the Soviet Union. Each chapter takes a theme of central significance across this huge geographical terrain, addresses it through one city and contextualizes it by reference to the other sites in this volume. The structure of the book moves from nostalgia and memories of the Soviet past to examine how current changes are being experienced and imagined through the shifting materialities, temporalities and political economies of urban life. Privatization is giving rise to new social geographies, while ethnic and religious sensibilities are creating emergent networks of sacred sites. But, however much ideologies are changing, cities also provide a constant lived mnemonic of lost configurations of ideology and practice, acting as signposts to bankrupted futures. Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia provides a detailed account of the changing nature of urban life in post-Soviet Asia, clearly elucidating the centrality of these urban transformations to citizens’ understandings of their own socio-economic condition.

Urban Life in Post-soviet Central Asia

Urban Life in Post-soviet Central Asia PDF Author: ALEXANDER Catherine
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781844721665
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Dr Catherine Alexander teaches at the Department of Anthropology, GoldsmithsCapturing a unique historical moment, this book analyses Central Asian urban processes both in a comparative framework and a post-Soviet setting - thus addressesing significant lacunae in the literatures on cities, Central Asia and post-socialism. As this book shows, people in these cities, so quintessentially Soviet in their contemporary fabric, layout and administration, are negotiating these temporal and spatial legacies in radically distinct ways as they move towards uncertain futures.

Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia

Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia PDF Author: Catharine Alexander
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1135392099
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Introduction / Catherine Alexander and Victor Buchli -- Astana : materiality and the city / Victor Buchli -- Almaty : rethinking the public sector / Catherine Alexander -- Tashkent : three capitals, three worlds / Marfua Tokhtakhodzhaeva -- City of migrants : contemporary Ulan-Ude in the context of Russian migration / Galina Manzanova -- The creation and revitalisation of ethnic, sacred sites in Ulan-Ude since 1990s / A. Hurelbaatar -- The homeless of Ulan-Ude / Irina Baldaeva -- New subjects and situated interdependence : after privatisation in Ulan-Ude / Caroline Humphrey -- Index.

Everyday Life in Central Asia

Everyday Life in Central Asia PDF Author: Jeff Sahadeo
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253219046
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For its citizens, contemporary Central Asia is a land of great promise and peril. While the end of Soviet rule has opened new opportunities for social mobility and cultural expression, political and economic dynamics have also imposed severe hardships. In this lively volume, contributors from a variety of disciplines examine how ordinary Central Asians lead their lives and navigate shifting historical and political trends. Provocative stories of Turkmen nomads, Afghan villagers, Kazakh scientists, Kyrgyz border guards, a Tajik strongman, guardians of religious shrines in Uzbekistan, and other narratives illuminate important issues of gender, religion, power, culture, and wealth. A vibrant and dynamic world of life in urban neighborhoods and small villages, at weddings and celebrations, at classroom tables, and around dinner tables emerges from this introduction to a geopolitically strategic and culturally fascinating region.

Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan's Aral Sea Region

Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan's Aral Sea Region PDF Author: William Wheeler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781800080379
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Environment and Post-Soviet Transformation in Kazakhstan's Aral Sea Region explores how the sea's retreat and partial return has impacted the lives of people living in the area.

Cultural Diversity in Russian Cities

Cultural Diversity in Russian Cities PDF Author: Cordula Gdaniec
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1845458311
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Cultural diversity — the multitude of different lifestyles that are not necessarily based on ethnic culture — is a catchphrase increasingly used in place of multiculturalism and in conjunction with globalization. Even though it is often used as a slogan it does capture a widespread phenomenon that cities must contend with in dealing with their increasingly diverse populations. The contributors examine how Russian cities are responding and through case studies from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Sochi explore the ways in which different cultures are inscribed into urban spaces, when and where they are present in public space, and where and how they carve out their private spaces. Through its unique exploration of the Russian example, this volume addresses the implications of the fragmented urban landscape on cultural practices and discourses, ethnicity, lifestyles and subcultures, and economic practices, and in doing so provides important insights applicable to a global context.

Central Peripheries

Central Peripheries PDF Author: Marlene Laruelle
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1800080131
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Central Peripheries explores post-Soviet Central Asia through the prism of nation-building. Although relative latecomers on the international scene, the Central Asian states see themselves as globalized, and yet in spite of – or perhaps precisely because of – this, they hold a very classical vision of the nation-state, rejecting the abolition of boundaries and the theory of the ‘death of the nation’. Their unabashed celebration of very classical nationhoods built on post-modern premises challenges the Western view of nationalism as a dying ideology that ought to have been transcended by post-national cosmopolitanism. Marlene Laruelle looks at how states in the region have been navigating the construction of a nation in a post-imperial context where Russia remains the dominant power and cultural reference. She takes into consideration the ways in which the Soviet past has influenced the construction of national storylines, as well as the diversity of each state’s narratives and use of symbolic politics. Exploring state discourses, academic narratives and different forms of popular nationalist storytelling allows Laruelle to depict the complex construction of the national pantheon in the three decades since independence. The second half of the book focuses on Kazakhstan as the most hybrid national construction and a unique case study of nationhood in Eurasia. Based on the principle that only multidisciplinarity can help us to untangle the puzzle of nationhood, Central Peripheries uses mixed methods, combining political science, intellectual history, sociology and cultural anthropology. It is inspired by two decades of fieldwork in the region and a deep knowledge of the region’s academia and political environment. Praise for Central Peripheries ‘Marlene Laruelle paves the way to the more focused and necessary outlook on Central Asia, a region that is not a periphery but a central space for emerging conceptual debates and complexities. Above all, the book is a product of Laruelle's trademark excellence in balancing empirical depth with vigorous theoretical advancements.’ – Diana T. Kudaibergenova, University of Cambridge ‘Using the concept of hybridity, Laruelle explores the multitude of historical, political and geopolitical factors that predetermine different ways of looking at nations and various configurations of nation-building in post-Soviet Central Asia. Those manifold contexts present a general picture of the transformation that the former southern periphery of the USSR has been going through in the past decades.’ – Sergey Abashin, European University at St Petersburg

Urban Spaces and Lifestyles in Central Asia and Beyond

Urban Spaces and Lifestyles in Central Asia and Beyond PDF Author: Philipp Schröder
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351723340
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
This volume contributes new insights to the scientific debate on post-Socialist urbanities. Based on ethnographic research in cities of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia, its contributions scrutinise the social production of diverse public, parochial and private spaces in conjunction with patterns of everyday encounter, identification, consumption and narration. The analyses extend from the transnational entanglements between a Dushanbe bazaar and hyper-modern Dubai to the micro-level hierarchies in a flat-sharing community in Astana. They explore competing notions of urban belonging and aesthetics in Yerevan, local perception of Central Asian Muslims in Kazan and Saint Petersburg, and more, providing a rich tapestry of academic study. Taken together, the case studies address cities as gateways to ‘new worlds’ (both local and global), discuss ambitions of states at taming urban landscapes, and illustrate current trends of economic, religious and other lifestyles in urban Central Asia and beyond. This book was originally published as a special issue of Central Asian Survey.

Post-Soviet Central Asia

Post-Soviet Central Asia PDF Author: International Institute for Asian Studies
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the independent republics of central Asia enjoy a greater degree of autonomy, but are faced with a range of complex social, political and economic problems. This book addresses these problems.

Post-Socialist Urban Infrastructures (OPEN ACCESS)

Post-Socialist Urban Infrastructures (OPEN ACCESS) PDF Author: Tauri Tuvikene
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351190334
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Post-Socialist Urban Infrastructures critically elaborates on often forgotten, but some of the most essential, aspects of contemporary urban life, namely infrastructures, and links them to a discussion of post-socialist transformation. As the skeletons of cities, infrastructures capture the ways in which urban environments are assembled and urban lives unfold. Focusing on post-socialist cities, marked by neoliberalisation, polarisation and hybridity, this book offers new and enriching perspectives on urban infrastructures by centering on the often marginalised aspects of urban research—transport, green spaces, and water and heating provision. Featuring cases from West and East alike, the book covers examples from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Russia, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Tajikistan, and India. It provides original insights into the infrastructural back end of post-socialist cities for scholars, planners and activists interested in urban geography, cultural and social anthropology, and urban studies.