A Critical Reader in Central Asian Studies

Rico Isaacs is an associate professor of politics at the University of Lincoln where he teaches courses in politics, nationalism, and Central Asia. His research interest concentrates on the political sociology of authoritarianism with an emphasis on the post-Soviet space focusing on Central Asia. Isaacs is the author and/or editor of five books and has published in world-leading peer-reviewed academic journals, including Europe-Asia Studies, Third World Quarterly, Contemporary Politics, Problems of Post-Communism, Nationalities Papers, and Electoral Studies, among many others. Isaacs has extensive fieldwork experience in the Central Asian region and has received funding from the European Union, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the British Council. He has provided consultancy for international research projects and political risk companies and has provided commentary on political developments in the region to various international media outlets. He has been serving as the editor of Central Asian Survey since 2019.

Introduction: 40 Years of Central Asian Survey

Rico Isaacs

Section One: History

Introduction

Mikhail Akulov

Excerpts

The Russian conquest of Central Asia (1982), Mehmet Saray

The role of the pristavstvo institution in the context of Russian imperial policies in the Kazakh Steppe in the nineteenth century (2014), Gulmira Sultangalieva

The creation of Soviet Central Asia: The 1924 national delimitation (1995), Steven Sabol

Humans as territory: forced resettlement and the making of Soviet Tajikistan, 1920–1938 (2011), Botakoz Kassymbekova

Marriage, modernity, and the ‘friendship of nations’: interethnic intimacy in post-war Central Asia in comparative perspective (2007), Adrienne Lynn Edgar

Section Two: Identity and Nationalism

Introduction

Kristoffer Rees

Excerpts

The politics of identity change in Soviet Central Asia (1984), S. Enders Wimbush

Creating national identity in socialist Mongolia (1998), Christopher Kaplonski

Imagined communities: Kazak nationalism and Kazakification in the 1990s (1999), Azamat Sarsembayev

Nationalism as a geopolitical phenomenon: The Central Asian case (2001), Farkhod Tolipov

Global Astana: nation branding as a legitimization tool for authoritarian regimes (2015), Adrien Fauve

Section Three: Islam

Introduction

Galym Zhussipbek

Excerpts

Islam in Soviet central Asia, 1917–1930: Soviet policy and the struggle for control (1992), Shoshana Keller

Soviet Islam since the invasion of Afghanistan (1982), Alexandre Bennigsen

Islamic revival in the central Asian Republics (1994), Mehrdad Haghayeghi

The logic of Islamic practice: a religious conflict in Central Asia (2006), Sergei Abashin

Islamic discourses in Azerbaijan: the securitization of ‘non-traditional religious movements (2018), Galib Bashirov

Section Four: Governing and the State

Introduction

Assel Tutumlu

Excerpts

Sharaf Rashidov and the dilemmas of national leadership (1986), Gregory Gleason

Authoritarian political development in Central Asia: The case of Turkmenistan (1995), John Anderson

Tajikistan amidst globalization: state failure or state transformation? (2011), John Heathershaw

Disorder over the border: spinning the spectre of instability through time and space in Central Asia (2018), Natalie Koch

Section Five: Informal Institutions

Introduction

Dina Sharipova

Excerpts

‘Tribalism’ and identity in contemporary circumstances: The case of Kazakstan (1998), Saulesh Esenova

Neopatrimonialism, interest groups and patronage networks: the impasses of the governance system in Uzbekistan (2007), Alisher Ilkhamov

Theories on Central Asian factionalism: the debate in political science and its wider implications (2007), David Gullette

Political and social networks in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan: ‘clan’, region and beyond (2009), İdil Tunçer-Kılavuz

Section Six: Contentious Politics

Introduction

Asel Doolotkeldieva

Excerpts

Central Asian riots and disturbances, 1989–1990: Causes and context (1991), Yaacov Ro'i

Networks, localism and mobilization in Aksy, Kyrgyzstan (2005), Scott Radnitz

Poetry of witness: Uzbek identity and the response to Andijon (2007), Sarah Kendzior

The dynamics of regime change: domestic and international factors in the ‘Tulip Revolution’ (2008), David Lewis

Post-violence regime survival and expansion in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan (2016), Erica Marat

Section Seven: Gender

Introduction

Nodira Kholmatova

Excerpts

The politics of gender and the Soviet paradox: neither colonized, nor modern? (2007), Deniz Kandiyoti

Making the ‘empowered woman’: exploring contradictions in gender and development programming in Kyrgyzstan (2018), Elena Kim, Asel Myrzabekova, Elena Molchanova & Olha Yarova

Women of protest, men of applause: political activism, gender and tradition in Kyrgyzstan (2019), Judith Beyer & Aijarkyn Kojobekova

What's in a name? The personal and political meanings of ‘LGBT’ for non-heterosexual and transgender youth in Kyrgyzstan (2010), Cai Wilkinson & Anna Kirey

Section Eight: Everyday Life

Introduction

Rano Turaeva

Excerpts

Household networks and the security of mutual indebtedness in rural Kazakstan (1998), Cynthia Werner

Staying put? Towards a relational politics of mobility at a time of migration (2011), Madeleine Reeves

Wedding rituals and the struggle over national identities (2011), Sophie Roche & Sophie Hohmann

‘How can I be post-Soviet if I was never Soviet?’ Rethinking categories of time and social change – a perspective from Kulob, southern Tajikistan (2015), Diana Ibañez-Tirado

Section Nine: Regional and Global Perspectives

Introduction

Zhanibek Arynov

Excerpts

Virtual regionalism, regional structures, and regime security in Central Asia (2008), Roy Allison

Regime security, base politics, and rent-seeking: the local and global political economies of the American air base in Kyrgyzstan, 2001–2010 (2015), Kemel Toktomushev

Blurring the line between licit and illicit: transnational corruption networks in Central Asia and beyond (2015), Alexander Cooley & J.C. Sharman

'Thoroughly reforming them towards a healthy heart attitude’: China’s political re-education campaign in Xinjiang (2019), Adrian Zenz