Economic Transformation, Social Change and Surviving Strategies in Post-Soviet Rural Uzbekistan

Verantwortlich für das Dissertationsprojekt: Meltem Sancak, M.A.
Betreuerin: Prof. Dr. Shalini Randeria

Abstract

This project aims at understanding the impacts of economic transformation in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. In particular, it looks at social change and the reconfiguration of interethnic relations. Contrary to a prevailing expectation that the new independent states of Central Asian would experience social upheaval and ethnic clashes, in most of the region the situation has remained remarkably stable. Research for the project has been conducted in two different field sites within Uzbekistan, namely the Bukhara Oasis and the Ferghana Valley. The former is famous for a long tradition of Turkic and Iranian co-residence and close intermingling. By contrast, the Ferghana Valley is considered the part of Central Asia with the highest potential for social and ethnic conflict. State boundaries, created arbitrarily during the Stalin period, today became a major issue in peoples’ economic and social life. The project tries to analyze the interrelatedness of national and global economic processes and the meaning of local institutions like kinship, village communities, or the former socialist enterprises in both settings.

Research Summary (PDF, 14 KB)