Post-soviet chaos : violence and dispossession in Kazakhstan / Joma Nazpary.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nazpary, Joma.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Post-communism--Kazakhstan.

Post-communism.

Alienation (Social psychology)--Kazakhstan.

Alienation (Social psychology).

Capitalism--Kazakhstan.

Capitalism.

Women--Kazakhstan--Social conditions.

Women.

Kazakhstan--Social conditions--1991-.

Kazakhstan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (232 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; Sterling, Va. : Pluto Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

'Essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of what capitalist globalization means for ordinary people, the grim social and political realities analysed in this book resonate far beyond the former USSR.' John Gledhill, Manchester University In the 1990's the former states of the Soviet Union underwent dramatic and revolutionary changes. As a result of enforced, neo-liberal reforms the fledgling republics were exposed to the familiar effects of globalised capital. Focusing on Kazakhstan, where violence and corruption are now facts of everyday life, Joma Nazpary examines the impact of the new capitalism on the people of Central Asia. Using in-depth interviews and material gathered over more than a year's fieldwork, Nazpary explores the responses of the dispossessed to their dispossession. He uncovers the construction of 'imagined communities', grounded in Soviet nostalgia, which serve to resist the economic order, as well as the more practical survival strategies, especially of women, often forced into prostitution where they are subject to violence and stigma. By revealing the extent to which Kazakh society has disintegrated and the cultural responses to it, Nazpary argues that dispossession has been a stronger unifying force than even ethnicity or religion. Comparing the effects of neo-liberal reforms in Kazakhstan with those in other regions, he concludes that causes, forms and consequences of dispossession in Kazakhstan are particular instances of a much wider global trend.

Contents:

People and places

Bardak : elements of chaos

Networking as a response to the chaos

Women and sexualised strategies : violence and stigma

Construction of the alien : imagining a Soviet community

Ethnic tensions

Conclusions in a comparative perspective : whose transition?.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781849640701

184964070X

OCLC:

71347059