Pub Date : 2023-03-27DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2023.2187346
Jasmin Dall’Agnola
{"title":"Smartphones and public support for LGBTQ+ in Central Asia","authors":"Jasmin Dall’Agnola","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2023.2187346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2023.2187346","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48908825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-24DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2023.2178386
P. Hou
ABSTRACT The article examines how China perceives Central Asia under Europeanisation after the Cold War (1992-2022). Central Asia is a geo-economically significant frontier zone between China and the European Union (EU). The EU released the Central Asia strategies in 2007 and 2019. Although there were no immediate policy reactions from neighbouring China, we can sketch China’s seemingly paradoxical perceptions of the region by scrutinising official narratives. The perceptions have been simplified into the bridge-base dyad. As a land bridge, Central Asia connects China with the EU, the role of which gained growing significance against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As a possible ideological base, Central Asia, under Europeanisation, may spread incompatible norms to the contiguous Xinjiang. Wary of creeping foreign hostile forces, China particularly underlines Xinjiang’s stability.
{"title":"Bridge or base? Chinese perceptions of Central Asia under Europeanisation","authors":"P. Hou","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2023.2178386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2023.2178386","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article examines how China perceives Central Asia under Europeanisation after the Cold War (1992-2022). Central Asia is a geo-economically significant frontier zone between China and the European Union (EU). The EU released the Central Asia strategies in 2007 and 2019. Although there were no immediate policy reactions from neighbouring China, we can sketch China’s seemingly paradoxical perceptions of the region by scrutinising official narratives. The perceptions have been simplified into the bridge-base dyad. As a land bridge, Central Asia connects China with the EU, the role of which gained growing significance against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As a possible ideological base, Central Asia, under Europeanisation, may spread incompatible norms to the contiguous Xinjiang. Wary of creeping foreign hostile forces, China particularly underlines Xinjiang’s stability.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42812350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-02DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2023.2167808
Yüksel Okşak, C. Koyuncu, R. Yilmaz
ABSTRACT Using an unbalanced data set covering the years from 1990 to 2017, this study examines the long-run relationship between three selected macroeconomic variables (unemployment, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation) and suicide rates for Turkic-speaking countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). The mean group estimation results suggest that among the three macroeconomic variables under study, only the unemployment rate has a statistically significant relationship with the suicide rate for the Central Asian Turkic-speaking countries. Regarding country-specific estimations, results suggest that all macroeconomic variables under study correlate with the suicide rate for some countries in the sample. Overall, the empirical findings of the study suggest that unemployment and per capita GDP are important contributors of suicide and intentional self-harm in Central Asia. Estimation results also call attention to the inflation rate.
{"title":"The long-run analysis of the association between macroeconomic variables and suicide: the case of Turkic-speaking countries in Central Asia","authors":"Yüksel Okşak, C. Koyuncu, R. Yilmaz","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2023.2167808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2023.2167808","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using an unbalanced data set covering the years from 1990 to 2017, this study examines the long-run relationship between three selected macroeconomic variables (unemployment, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation) and suicide rates for Turkic-speaking countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). The mean group estimation results suggest that among the three macroeconomic variables under study, only the unemployment rate has a statistically significant relationship with the suicide rate for the Central Asian Turkic-speaking countries. Regarding country-specific estimations, results suggest that all macroeconomic variables under study correlate with the suicide rate for some countries in the sample. Overall, the empirical findings of the study suggest that unemployment and per capita GDP are important contributors of suicide and intentional self-harm in Central Asia. Estimation results also call attention to the inflation rate.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45690004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-17DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2022.2154750
M. J. Erdman
ABSTRACT The study of language and script change among the Turkic communities of the Soviet Union often focuses on the switch from Arabic to Latin scripts. Less attention is paid to adaptations of the Arabic script to Turkic vernaculars, and to attempts aimed at convincing the literate masses of their usefulness. In the current paper, I aim to do just that. By making use of Turkic-language periodicals from Crimea, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, I throw light on the era before Latin. I explore writers’, editors’ and other intellectuals’ efforts to vernacularize written languages and enforce national boundaries along Soviet lines through changes to the dominant script. More than this, I investigate these actors’ use of magazines to convince their readers of new vernacular, language- and territory-based national identities. In doing so, I demonstrate that periodicals became implements of national consciousness creation targeted at the Turkic citizens of the early Soviet Union.
{"title":"Vehicularizing the vernacular: using the periodical press to popularize vernacular languages in Soviet Turkic communities","authors":"M. J. Erdman","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2154750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2154750","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The study of language and script change among the Turkic communities of the Soviet Union often focuses on the switch from Arabic to Latin scripts. Less attention is paid to adaptations of the Arabic script to Turkic vernaculars, and to attempts aimed at convincing the literate masses of their usefulness. In the current paper, I aim to do just that. By making use of Turkic-language periodicals from Crimea, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, I throw light on the era before Latin. I explore writers’, editors’ and other intellectuals’ efforts to vernacularize written languages and enforce national boundaries along Soviet lines through changes to the dominant script. More than this, I investigate these actors’ use of magazines to convince their readers of new vernacular, language- and territory-based national identities. In doing so, I demonstrate that periodicals became implements of national consciousness creation targeted at the Turkic citizens of the early Soviet Union.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49608754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-11DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2022.2152778
Berikbol Dukeyev
ABSTRACT This paper studies the role of textbook authors when portraying the Kazakhstani famine of 1931–33 in textbooks printed between 1992 and 2021 for the secondary school subject ‘The History of Kazakhstan’. Drawing on a multilayered and inter-discursive analysis of seven of these textbooks, and after 10 interviews with curriculum developers and textbook authors, this paper argues that authorship agencies have reflected a level of ambivalence: on the cause(s) of the famine; on their evaluation of it as a tragedy or as a genocide; on the identification of the perpetrators and victims; and the people’s revolt against the collectivization. The textbook authors have echoed the narratives from the cautious approach to the famine’s commemoration portrayed in state-led nation-building, to those in Kazakh nationalist narratives and the academic history. The results of this paper oppose the general assumption that textbook narratives are merely constructed from ‘above’ in a non-democratic state such as Kazakhstan.
{"title":"Representation of the Kazakhstani famine (1931–33) in secondary school history textbooks, 1992–2021","authors":"Berikbol Dukeyev","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2152778","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2152778","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper studies the role of textbook authors when portraying the Kazakhstani famine of 1931–33 in textbooks printed between 1992 and 2021 for the secondary school subject ‘The History of Kazakhstan’. Drawing on a multilayered and inter-discursive analysis of seven of these textbooks, and after 10 interviews with curriculum developers and textbook authors, this paper argues that authorship agencies have reflected a level of ambivalence: on the cause(s) of the famine; on their evaluation of it as a tragedy or as a genocide; on the identification of the perpetrators and victims; and the people’s revolt against the collectivization. The textbook authors have echoed the narratives from the cautious approach to the famine’s commemoration portrayed in state-led nation-building, to those in Kazakh nationalist narratives and the academic history. The results of this paper oppose the general assumption that textbook narratives are merely constructed from ‘above’ in a non-democratic state such as Kazakhstan.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48466750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-11DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2022.2154315
Zarkamol Munisov (Camille), Iris Borowy
ABSTRACT This study examines contemporary poems on the Aral Sea crisis. Labelling them Russophone, the authors argue that the Russian language holds its status of lingua franca for the poets concerned about the environmental disaster in Central Asia. In these poems, the Aral Sea has become a central metaphor for the catastrophe that transcends the original case. The depiction of the diverse environmental issues caused by expanded irrigation policies in Soviet Central Asia provides favourable conditions to study these verses primarily from an ecopoetic perspective. Though these poems address one problem, the narrative form remains diverse: some authors apply various images; others personify the Aral Sea. In these verses the desert image acquires an unorthodox interpretation, while the personification of the Aral Sea in the poems reinforces the prior ecopoetry studies. This article investigates the poems’ content, historical background and anthropogenic effects on nature that pushed their authors to write them.
{"title":"A narrative analysis: tragic images of the Aral Sea in the Russophone ecopoems","authors":"Zarkamol Munisov (Camille), Iris Borowy","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2154315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2154315","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study examines contemporary poems on the Aral Sea crisis. Labelling them Russophone, the authors argue that the Russian language holds its status of lingua franca for the poets concerned about the environmental disaster in Central Asia. In these poems, the Aral Sea has become a central metaphor for the catastrophe that transcends the original case. The depiction of the diverse environmental issues caused by expanded irrigation policies in Soviet Central Asia provides favourable conditions to study these verses primarily from an ecopoetic perspective. Though these poems address one problem, the narrative form remains diverse: some authors apply various images; others personify the Aral Sea. In these verses the desert image acquires an unorthodox interpretation, while the personification of the Aral Sea in the poems reinforces the prior ecopoetry studies. This article investigates the poems’ content, historical background and anthropogenic effects on nature that pushed their authors to write them.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43176679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-11DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2022.2155110
Ali Anooshahr
ABSTRACT The Sāmānid dynasty of Transoxiana is perhaps best known today for its foundational contributions to the formation of Persianate culture in the ninth and tenth centuries. The problems of the origins of the dynasty has received scholarly attention for many years. However, the field is in some ways still very much dependent upon nineteenth-century ethno-racial categories. This paper critically traces the history of the question, ending with some alternative approaches based on the shifting of economic power in Transoxania from merchants to the agrarian magnates.
{"title":"On the problem of Sāmānid origins","authors":"Ali Anooshahr","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2155110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2155110","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Sāmānid dynasty of Transoxiana is perhaps best known today for its foundational contributions to the formation of Persianate culture in the ninth and tenth centuries. The problems of the origins of the dynasty has received scholarly attention for many years. However, the field is in some ways still very much dependent upon nineteenth-century ethno-racial categories. This paper critically traces the history of the question, ending with some alternative approaches based on the shifting of economic power in Transoxania from merchants to the agrarian magnates.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48309636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2022.2072811
Zh. M. Khamitov, Colin Knox, G. Junusbekova
ABSTRACT Kazakhstan, seen as an example of political stability in Central Asia, recently descended into political turmoil. While the causes of the violence and unrest are the subject of ongoing analysis, their origins can be linked to systemic inequalities in a country rich in natural resources. Inter alia, Kazakhstan has failed to tackle insidious problems of corruption, particularly in public procurement contracts. Public procurement constitutes a significant amount of government spending in developing countries which makes it a high-risk area for corruption. Using primary data collected from small and medium-size enterprises organisations in Kazakhstan, this research finds that public officials and suppliers are complicit in corrupt practices. Intervention strategies, such as monitoring and control, have failed to tackle this problem. While the causes of recent political instability in Kazakhstan are multiple, corruption remains an underlying and persistent problem which will add to the fermenting discontent among the citizens of Kazakhstan.
{"title":"Corruption, public procurement and political instability in Kazakhstan","authors":"Zh. M. Khamitov, Colin Knox, G. Junusbekova","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2072811","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2072811","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Kazakhstan, seen as an example of political stability in Central Asia, recently descended into political turmoil. While the causes of the violence and unrest are the subject of ongoing analysis, their origins can be linked to systemic inequalities in a country rich in natural resources. Inter alia, Kazakhstan has failed to tackle insidious problems of corruption, particularly in public procurement contracts. Public procurement constitutes a significant amount of government spending in developing countries which makes it a high-risk area for corruption. Using primary data collected from small and medium-size enterprises organisations in Kazakhstan, this research finds that public officials and suppliers are complicit in corrupt practices. Intervention strategies, such as monitoring and control, have failed to tackle this problem. While the causes of recent political instability in Kazakhstan are multiple, corruption remains an underlying and persistent problem which will add to the fermenting discontent among the citizens of Kazakhstan.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48826361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2023-01-05DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2022.2147146
Saltanat Childress, Nibedita Shrestha, Kendall Anekwe, Mitchell D Wong, Rebecca N Dudovitz
The study identifies factors that limit effective institutional responses to domestic violence (DV) in Kyrgyzstan, in the context of recent legislative actions aimed at reducing DV through improvements in law enforcement, judicial processes, and provision of social services. The study uses qualitative, grounded theory methods to analyze interviews and focus groups with 83 professionals working in these sectors. Two major themes emerge from the analysis: (1) barriers to effective institutional responses from internal challenges and constraints, and (2) social resources and challenges identified as important to provide a better collective response. The study highlights the need for capacity development within institutions and broader social learning to overcome existing barriers and better align outcomes with the intentions of recent legislation. Standardized training, awareness-raising, enhanced roles for educators and religious leaders, better coordinated social service provision, rehabilitation for victims and perpetrators, and family-centered school-based interventions are identified as targets for improving responsiveness.
{"title":"Factors inhibiting institutional responses to domestic violence in Kyrgyzstan.","authors":"Saltanat Childress, Nibedita Shrestha, Kendall Anekwe, Mitchell D Wong, Rebecca N Dudovitz","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2147146","DOIUrl":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2147146","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The study identifies factors that limit effective institutional responses to domestic violence (DV) in Kyrgyzstan, in the context of recent legislative actions aimed at reducing DV through improvements in law enforcement, judicial processes, and provision of social services. The study uses qualitative, grounded theory methods to analyze interviews and focus groups with 83 professionals working in these sectors. Two major themes emerge from the analysis: (1) barriers to effective institutional responses from internal challenges and constraints, and (2) social resources and challenges identified as important to provide a better collective response. The study highlights the need for capacity development within institutions and broader social learning to overcome existing barriers and better align outcomes with the intentions of recent legislation. Standardized training, awareness-raising, enhanced roles for educators and religious leaders, better coordinated social service provision, rehabilitation for victims and perpetrators, and family-centered school-based interventions are identified as targets for improving responsiveness.</p>","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10348350/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9830917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-05DOI: 10.1080/02634937.2022.2144806
Abdullah Yarash Jurat
ABSTRACT This paper analyses irregular Afghan migrants in Turkey based on a qualitative field research study conducted in the cities of Ankara, Bursa, Malatya, Kayseri and Istanbul (see Note 1 on use of the term ‘Afghan’). It focuses on their migration journey, the factors driving migration and post-migration challenges. This research seeks to answer why Afghan irregular migrants are mainly male adults and how the employers in Turkey treat them. Afghan migrants in Turkey are mainly unskilled members of the labour force, typically working in construction, in supermarkets, as shepherds and in kitchens. This study argues that Afghan migration motives are mainly driven by humanitarian and economic deprivation. However, when they arrive in Turkey, migrants have no legal protection and are thrown into despair by their employers’ mistreatment.
{"title":"The tragedy of irregular migration: the case of Afghans in Turkey","authors":"Abdullah Yarash Jurat","doi":"10.1080/02634937.2022.2144806","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2144806","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper analyses irregular Afghan migrants in Turkey based on a qualitative field research study conducted in the cities of Ankara, Bursa, Malatya, Kayseri and Istanbul (see Note 1 on use of the term ‘Afghan’). It focuses on their migration journey, the factors driving migration and post-migration challenges. This research seeks to answer why Afghan irregular migrants are mainly male adults and how the employers in Turkey treat them. Afghan migrants in Turkey are mainly unskilled members of the labour force, typically working in construction, in supermarkets, as shepherds and in kitchens. This study argues that Afghan migration motives are mainly driven by humanitarian and economic deprivation. However, when they arrive in Turkey, migrants have no legal protection and are thrown into despair by their employers’ mistreatment.","PeriodicalId":46602,"journal":{"name":"Central Asian Survey","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44369160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}