Post-Colonial Approaches in Kazakhstan and Beyond
Author: Dina Sharipova
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published:
Total Pages: 223
ISBN-13: 9819982626
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Great Games, Local Rules
Author: Alexander Cooley
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 268
ISBN-13: 0199812004
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe struggle between Russia and Great Britain over Central Asia in the nineteenth century was the original "great game." But in the past quarter century, a new "great game" has emerged, pitting America against a newly aggressive Russia and a resource-hungry China, all struggling for influence over one of the volatile areas in the world: the long border region stretching from Iran through Pakistan to Kashmir. In Great Games, Local Rules, Alexander Cooley, one of America's most respected Central Asia experts, explores the dynamics of the new competition over the region since 9/11. All three great powers are pursuing important goals: basing rights for the US, access to natural resources for the Chinese, and increased political influence for the Russians. But Central Asian governments have proven themselves powerful forces in their own right, establishing local rules that serve to fend off foreign involvement, enrich themselves and reinforce their sovereign authority. Cooley's careful and surprising explanation of how small states interact with great powers in this vital region greatly advances our understanding of how world politics actually works in this contemporary era.
Strategies and Challenges of Sustainable Development in Eurasia
Author: Anastassia Obydenkova
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2024-04-30
Total Pages: 175
ISBN-13: 104002095X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines the main environmental challenges and their management in post-Soviet Eurasia and China. It uncovers international, national, and subnational dimensions in sustainable development and aims to facilitate understanding of pressing environmental problems in the region. While supporting the values and goals of sustainable development at the international level, states might employ very different strategies at the national, regional and local levels. The goal of this edited book is twofold. First, it aims to advance our understanding of different strategies, paying special attention to China and Russia at global, national, and sub-national levels. Thus, analysis of their strategies across different levels presents a more rounded picture. The second goal is to identify at least a few of the most pressing challenges of sustainable development across post-Soviet Eurasia and China (e.g. nuclear supply chain, emissions, environmental conflict management) and to attempt to understand their triggers, outcomes, and potential solutions. This book reflects the state-of-the-art before the invasion in Ukraine took place. It aspires to develop a better dialogue across different sets of literature in area studies, environmental politics, and international relations to improve our understanding of obstacles to sustainable development in Eurasia. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Post-Communist Economies.
Bonds of Blood?
Author: Ekaterina Sokirianskaia
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2023-02-09
Total Pages: 281
ISBN-13: 1350271713
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe North Caucasus, specifically Chechnya and Ingushetia, is a region that has experienced some of the deadliest and most protracted conflicts in Europe. By examining the relationship between state and society, this book considers how state-building has unfolded in a region with highly complex social structures, a history of colonialism, Soviet authoritarianism, and later post-Soviet wars and trauma. Focusing on a systematic analysis of subnational state-building in post-Soviet Chechnya and Ingushetia, and the role of teips (clans) in this process, this study responds to the widely accepted academic claim that governance and ethnic consolidation in the North Caucasus is shaped by the politics of teips. Through socio-anthropological analysis of the clans and how they function towards political systems, Sokirianskaia shows how the teips lost their organizational structure and roles, becoming incapable of mobilizing for political action. While teip symbolism has remained politically relevant, and the bonds of kinship are highly important, they do not form the basis of politics and subnational statebuilding in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Consequently, subnational authoritarianism is not the result of the pre-existing social composition of the society, but a reflection of the rules of the game imposed by Moscow and political choices of the Kremlin-installed local elites.
Beyond State Crisis?
Author: Mark Beissinger
Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Published: 2002-01-24
Total Pages: 538
ISBN-13: 9781930365087
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe contributors not only study state breakdown but compare the consequences of post-communism with those of post-colonialism.
The SAGE Handbook of Social Anthropology
Author: Richard Fardon
Publisher: SAGE
Published: 2012-07-25
Total Pages: 1186
ISBN-13: 144626601X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn two volumes, the SAGE Handbook of Social Anthropology provides the definitive overview of contemporary research in the discipline. It explains the what, where, and how of current and anticipated work in Social Anthropology. With 80 authors, contributing more than 60 chapters, this is the most comprehensive and up-to-date statement of research in Social Anthropology available and the essential point of departure for future projects. The Handbook is divided into four sections: -Part I: Interfaces examines Social Anthropology′s disciplinary connections, from Art and Literature to Politics and Economics, from Linguistics to Biomedicine, from History to Media Studies. -Part II: Places examines place, region, culture, and history, from regional, area studies to a globalized world -Part III: Methods examines issues of method; from archives to war zones, from development projects to art objects, and from ethics to comparison -Part IV: Futures anticipates anthropologies to come: in the Brain Sciences; in post-Development; in the Body and Health; and in new Technologies and Materialities Edited by the leading figures in social anthropology, the Handbook includes a substantive introduction by Richard Fardon, a think piece by Jean and John Comaroff, and a concluding last word on futures by Marilyn Strathern. The authors - each at the leading edge of the discipline - contribute in-depth chapters on both the foundational ideas and the latest research. Comprehensive and detailed, this magisterial Handbook overviews the last 25 years of the social anthropological imagination. It will speak to scholars in Social Anthropology and its many related disciplines.
Modern Clan Politics
Author: Edward Schatz
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2012-09-01
Total Pages: 279
ISBN-13: 0295803495
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEdward Schatz explores the politics of kin-based clan divisions in the post-Soviet state of Kazakhstan. Drawing from extensive ethnographic and archival research, interviews, and wide-ranging secondary sources, he highlights a politics that poses a two-tiered challenge to current thinking about modernity and Central Asia. First, asking why kinship divisions do not fade from political life with modernization, he shows that the state actually constructs clan relationships by infusing them with practical political and social meaning. By activating the most important quality of clans - their "concealability" - the state is itself responsible for the vibrant politics of these subethnic divisions which has emerged and flourished in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Subethnic divisions are crucial to understanding how group solidarities and power relations coexist and where they intersect. But, in a second challenge to current thinking, Schatz argues that clan politics should not be understood simply as competition among primordial groups. Rather, the meanings attributed to clan relationships - both the public stigmas and the publicly proclaimed pride in clans - are part and parcel of this contest. Drawing parallels with relevant cases from the Middle East, East and North Africa, and other parts of the former USSR, Schatz concludes that a more appropriate policy may be achieved by making clans a legitimate part of political and social life, rendering them less powerful or corrupt by increasing their transparency. Political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, policy makers, and others who study state power and identity groups will find a wealth of empirical material and conceptual innovation for discussion and debate.
Politics and Oil in Kazakhstan
Author: Wojciech Ostrowski
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-02-25
Total Pages: 219
ISBN-13: 1135248249
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBased on extensive field work and in-depth interviews in Kazakhstan, this book provides a comprehensive study of the issues of politics of oil and state-business relationships in Kazakhstan. It examines the ways in which the post-Soviet Kazakh regime has managed to sustain itself in power, and the regime maintenance techniques it has used in the process of establishing and upholding its position.
Political Violence and Oil in Africa
Author: Zainab Ladan Mai-Bornu
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: 2020-06-08
Total Pages: 268
ISBN-13: 3030455254
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe book argues that in order to better understand the undercurrents of the Niger Delta conflict, it is imperative to analyse the dynamics of choice in terms of the distinct courses of action taken by the Ogoni and Ijaw. Given the similar structural constraints, the author considers why the Ogoni adopted nonviolent resistance, and the Ijaw violent resistance. This book is divided into seven chapters starting with an introduction to oil and political violence in African conflicts, and includes a synoptic overview of four other resource-rich countries in Africa. Theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of conflict are then presented with the aim of situating the Niger Delta conflicts within the wider conflict literature. Chapter Three concentrates the discussion on the Nigerian Niger Delta, outlining the core issues at the centre of the contestations. The following three chapters offer an in-depth empirical analysis on the interaction between the narratives on nonviolence versus violence, the nature of leadership styles, and the organisation of the Ogoni and Ijaw movements along with a concluding chapter.
Kazakhstan - Ethnicity, Language and Power
Author: Bhavna Dave
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2007-09-13
Total Pages: 257
ISBN-13: 1134324987
DOWNLOAD EBOOKKazakhstan is emerging as the most dynamic economic and political actor in Central Asia. It is the second largest country of the former Soviet Union, after the Russian Federation, and has rich natural resources, particularly oil, which is being exploited through massive US investment. Kazakhstan has an impressive record of economic growth under the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, and has ambitions to project itself as a modern, wealthy civic state, with a developed market economy. At the same time, Kazakhstan is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the region, with very substantial non-Kazakh and non-Muslim minorities. Its political regime has used elements of political clientelism and neo-traditional practices to bolster its rule. Drawing from extensive ethnographic research, interviews, and archival materials this book traces the development of national identity and statehood in Kazakhstan, focusing in particular on the attempts to build a national state. It argues that Russification and Sovietization were not simply 'top-down' processes, that they provide considerable scope for local initiatives, and that Soviet ethnically-based affirmative action policies have had a lasting impact on ethnic élite formation and the rise of a distinct brand of national consciousness.
