In Kyrgyzstan, nationalism combines a narrative on the titular ethnic group and its relation to a civic, state-based, identity, feelings of imperiled sovereignty, and a rising electorate agenda for ...political forces. Nationalism has therefore become the engine of an interpretative framework for Kyrgyzstan’s failures and enables the society indirectly to formulate its perception of threat, both on the Uzbek and Kyrgyz sides. To this end, this article first analyzes the double identity narrative, civic and ethnic, of Akayev’s regime, followed by the transformation toward a more ethno-centered Kyrgyz patriotism under Bakiyev, the growing role of the theme of imperiled sovereignty—which culminated with the events in Osh—and how nationalism is today becoming a key element of the political agenda and the public scene.
Youth civic engagement in post-socialist countries and youth enrolment in defending the current regimes or contesting them became a growing topic of research in the 2000s. This essay examines a ...category of largely under-studied youth social engagement in Russia: patriotic clubs for children, teenagers and young adults. These clubs do not come close to the stereotypes promoted by the state patriotic education programmes. There is a major gap between the activists' patriotic narratives and practices, and those expected by the Kremlin. The first part of the paper investigates the notion of 'patriotic club' as a broad umbrella that covers multiple activities and practices. Then it explores their meanings and three of their main functions, as a professional tool on the job market, a source of cultural capital, and a way to develop a depoliticised social engagement.
This article argues that to capture Russia's influence abroad, one needs to comprehend the country's "gray diplomacy" as a neoliberal realm open to individual initiatives. We define "entrepreneurs of ...influence" as people who invest their own money or social capital to build influence abroad in hopes of being rewarded by the Kremlin . We test this notion by looking at both famous and unknown entrepreneurs of influence and their digital activities. We divide them into three broad categories based on their degree of proximity to the authorities: the tycoons (Yevgeny Prigozhin and Konstantin Malofeev), the timeservers (Alexander Yonov and Alexander Malkevich), and the frontline pioneers (the Belgian Luc Michel). An analysis of the technical data documenting their online activities shows that some of these initiatives, while inscribed into Moscow's broad aspirations to great powerness, are based on the specific agendas of their promoters, and thus outlines the inherent limits of Moscow's endeavors.
The arrival into geography, and especially urban geography, of a frame of questioning coming from postcolonial studies has contributed to a fascinating debate about what a "postcolonial" city is and ...how the urban duality between ethnically, socially, and spatially segregated "European" towns and "native" settlements is being reformulated and transformed. Obviously, Arctic cities are not postcolonial in the political sense of being independent from the former colonial centre - although this process may be under way in Greenland - but they have seen a progressive move from a Eurocentric culture toward greater hybridization. This article looks into two new trends that contribute to making Arctic cities postcolonial: first, the arrival of indigenous peoples in cities and the concomitant diminution of the division between Europeans/urbanites and natives/rurals; and second, the arrival of labour migrants from abroad, which has given birth to a more plural and cosmopolitan citizenry. It advances the idea that Arctic cities are now in a position to play a "decolonizing" role, in the sense of progressively erasing the purely European aspect of the city and making it both more local and rooted (through indigenous communities) and more global and multicultural (through foreign labour migrants).
This collection is a multidisciplinary examination of modern-day Kazakhstan. It analyzes the country's fast-changing national identity, the current regime's ongoing quest for popular support, ...relations between the Kazakh majority and the Russian-speaking minorities, and various other issues.
The theme of "Russian influence" has been invading the think tank world. Yet the concept of influence must be deployed with care. Analysts have frequently assumed that, when states do things thought ...favourable to Russia, it must be because Moscow has either forced them to act in that manner, or has actively manipulated their domestic politics so that they do so. Left largely unconsidered are the various other reasons that one state might act in a manner desirable to another. In this article we look at the different vectors that might yield Russia-favorable behavior by Kazakhstan: exogenous ones that Russia actively and passively generates and endogenous ones that are passively or even actively generated within Kazakhstan itself. We discuss Russia's economic and strategic links with Kazakhstan, the issue of the Russian minority, the status of the Russian language, Russian media presence, Russia's governmental and non-governmental networks, and the "payoff" of the latter three vectors: Kazakhstani popular Russophilia. By distinguishing between active and passive vectors, as well as between exogenous and endogenous ones, we propose a more nuanced and better theoretically articulated picture of Russia's "influence" in Kazakhstan.
This article first introduces the recent theoretical advances achieved through the concept of neopatrimonalism. Next, it links neopatrimonialism to the concept of patronal presidentialism, which has ...been used in the Eurasian space. It then analyzes the societal and economic mechanisms of these patronal regimes, deconstructs the links between patronage and "clan politics," and insists on the hybrid character of the norms and legitimacies of these regimes, thereby asserting that there is room for change and innovation. It concludes by discussing the cumulative knowledge offered by this special issue examining Central Asia. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
This article advances the notion of "Polar Islam" to describe the birth and structuring of Muslim communities in Russia's Arctic cities. It does not assert that Arctic conditions have created an ...entirely specific Islam; most of the features attributed here to "Polar Islam" can easily be found in other regions of Russia. Yet the climatic conditions, remoteness, and heavy industrial character of these cities contribute to accentuating certain characteristics that mold the social landscape in which Muslims live, thereby offering a fascinating regional case study of the development of Islam. This article first explores the emergence of Islamic symbols-mosques-on the Arctic urban landscape and the institutional struggles around the control of this Polar Islam. It then delves into Muslim communities' cultural adaptation to their new Arctic identity. The blossoming of this Polar Islam confirms that Islam is no longer geographically segregated in its traditional regions, such as the North Caucasus and the Volga-Urals; it has spread to all the country's big cities. In this respect, Arctic cities are at the forefront of Russia's societal transformations.
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