| Perspective Volume XV Number 1 (October-November 2004) |
DISSERTATION
PERSPECTIVES: CENTRAL
ASIA
By David Montgomery
Numerous
journals contain book reviews and express keen interest in recent scholarship,
but few, if any, review dissertations.
This column is a step towards acknowledging the accomplishments of young
scholars and aims to consider, albeit briefly, the research contained in ten
unpublished dissertations – submitted within the last five years –
that have focused on Central Asia.
Some are in the process of being transformed into books and thus will
become more widely available, but all have involved significant amounts of
field research and archival research.
All dissertations reviewed are available either from UMI ProQuest or the
library at the university from which the PhD was awarded.
While,
inevitably, they are dominated by analysis of the transition to post-Soviet
rule, some focus more on cultural, ethnic, and sub-ethnic aspects, others on
social issues and problems of governance. All reflect awareness of the fact
that the transition to self-governance is far from complete.
1) Adams,
Laura. 1999. Celebrating Independence: Arts, Institutions, and Identity in
Uzbekistan. University of California,
Berkeley.
(Uzbekistan)
Adams
seeks to elucidate the question why the Tashkent cultural elites have
maintained the Soviet understanding of culture rather than develop their
own. Uzbekistan¹s cultural elites
have embraced the ³Soviet schema of culture² manifest in institutional
structures such as the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, while at the same time
rejecting Soviet power. Thus,
while the socialist content of Soviet ³cultural production² has disappeared,
the structural means for conveying the concept of an Uzbek identity, both
modern and traditional, has retained the cultural logic of Soviet institutions.
2) Collins,
Kathleen. 1999. Clans, Pacts, and Politics: Understanding Regime Transition
in Central Asia. Stanford University.
(Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan)
Collins
looks at the issue of political transition, questioning what factors account
for the differences of post-Soviet regime change in Central Asia: of Kyrgyzstan
turning toward democracy; of Uzbekistan shifting toward neo-authoritarianism;
and of Tajikistan descending into civil war. Offering an analysis of informal institutions, especially
those of the clan networks, she argues that informal associations are more
critical in the transition process than are the formal political institutions.
The pervasiveness of informal associations and their influence on political
choice make them crucial elements of any attempt to explain the transitional
form of power regimes in Central Asia.
3) Thurman,
Jonathan. 1999. Modes of Organization in Central Asian Irrigation: The
Ferghana Valley, 1876 to Present. Indiana
University.
(Uzbekistan)
Recognizing
that the irrigation system in Uzbekistan has been mismanaged, Thurman suggests
that organizations introduced and dominated by the Soviet colonial state were
less effective than indigenous organizational structures. The colonial structure of water
management was rife with greed and confusion, which undermined the ³customary²
arrangements and thereby made the overall system of management less
sustainable. The decline in
efficiency led to degradation of soil, thus burdening contemporary states with
the need to reform their management of the irrigation system in order to move
it toward responsible stewardship of their resources.
4) Cooper,
Alanna. 2000. Negotiating Identity in the Context of Diaspora, Dispersion
and Reunion: The Bukharan Jews and Jews Peoplehood. Boston University.
(Uzbekistan)
Examining
Bukharan Jews as a group both before and after the dissolution of the Soviet
Union, Cooper looks at the changes the Bukharan Jews faced in the context of
negotiating identity. With mass
immigrations to both Israel and the United States, Bukharan Jews were forced to
encounter a Jewish culture different from their own. Cooper offers two models to analyze this encounter: 1)
³edah² which celebrates cultural diversity; and 2) ³center/periphery² which examins
orthodoxy as it pertains to customs accepted by dominant centers. Outlying
beliefs, in this aspect are viewed with suspicion as deviations. Cooper¹s
conclusions include the observation that Bukharan Jews tend to understand
Judaism as centrally defined and in close (if at times contradictory) relations
with a uniquely Bukharan cultural context.
5) Schatz,
Edward. 2000. ³Tribes² and ³Clans² in Modern Power: The State-led Production
of Subethnic Politics in Kazakhstan.
University of Wisconsin, Madison.
(Kazakhstan)
Attempting
to explain why the sub-ethnicities of ³tribe² and ³clan² continue to persist
and actively to shape modern political life, Schatz suggests that, in the case
of Kazakhstan, modernization, and more specifically, Sovietization, has had a
prominent role in solidifying the utility of these sub-ethnicities. He argues that the economic shortages
of Soviet modernization encouraged the proliferation of sub-ethnic networks and
that the stigma attached to sub-ethnicities by Soviet nationalities policy
pushed the affiliations underground. In a sense, this attempt to marginalize these relationships
actually increased their utility. The effectiveness of these networks as an
expression of ethnic identities in modern political life is hampered, however,
by the ³meta-conflicts² that span ethnicities.
6) Carlisle,
Kathleen. 2001. Clans and Politics in Uzbekistan. Boston College.
(Uzbekistan)
Carlisle
argues that in Uzbekistan, clans are groups with weak solidarity because they
are non-collaborative in nature and cleavages within them prevent unity in the
political order. Modernizing
elites have attempted over time, to defuse the tensions of clan-based
solidarity by promoting an Uzbek national identity. She reviews the policies of Soviet leaders towards clan and
sub-ethnic divisions and concludes that President Islam Karimov, despite the
relative frailty of Uzbek clan unity, has appointed key government personnel
inequitably, based on clan affiliation.
Karimov¹s choices furthermore, clearly have been incompatible with
democracy.
7) Sievers,
Eric. 2001. Sustainable Development and Comprehensive Capital: The
Post-Soviet Decline of Central Asia.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
(Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan)
Looking
at various social indicators in post-Soviet Central Asia, Sievers argues that
there has been a decline of comprehensive capital -- social, human and physical
-- that accounts for economic decline in the region and a general shift
toward despotism. Recent
development and reform projects have been largely unsuccessful, with little
noticeable improvement in the environment, the rooting of democracy, or
scientific and intellectual development.
While the decline was exacerbated by the imbalance of resources created
under the Soviet system, the extent of this decline could have been mitigated
if development and reform projects would have considered more seriously the
impact of the intricate organizational structures of the Soviet Union.
8) Liu,
Morgan. 2002. Recognizing the Khan: Authority, Space, and Political
Imagination among Uzbek Men in Post-Soviet Osh, Kyrgyzstan. University of Michigan.
(Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan)
Lui
looks at the role space and authority plays in the understanding of power among
a population of Uzbek men in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. The subjects of his field work view Uzbek President Islam
Karimov as a benevolent despot with the virtues of a Khan ruler. The argument follows that their concept
of Khan authority derives its character from the Uzbek neighborhoods¹ (mahallas) expectations of authority as being spatially
dispersed. Thus, in examining the
case of Karimov¹s closing of the border between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Liu
shows how Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan accept Khan authority, even in instances where
that authority is not in their best interests. Liu presents this acceptance of Khan authority as a somewhat
idiomatic conception of community that serves as an alternative to Western
models of civil society and the state.
9) Rowe,
William. 2002. On the Edge of Empires: The Hisor Valley of Tajikistan. University of Texan, Austin.
(Tajikistan)
Historically,
the borders of Central Asia have been difficult to classify. Tajikistan is unique as an
artificially-created state, which does not encompass any of the major cities to
which Tajiks make claim and, having suffered a civil war and Soviet dependence,
Tajiks have had to make a number of economic, social, and cultural
adaptations. Focusing on the Hisor
Valley of southern Tajikistan, Rowe moves within the historical context and
further examines the impact changes in land tenure and agriculture-related
activities have had on Tajik society.
The argument continues that it is through an understanding of Tajik
social reality that the world can assist more effectively the development of
Tajikistan and keep it from falling into a chaos similar to that seen in
Afghanistan.
10) McGlinchey,
Eric. 2003. Paying for Patronage: Regime Change in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Princeton University.
(Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan)
McGlinchey
focuses on the factors which influence regime change and tries to explain why,
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan remained authoritarian while
Kyrgyzstan moved between democracy and autocracy. This difference in political outcome, despite shared
legacies, can be explained in part, by arguing that practices of illiberal rule
persist only if the resources remain to allow those practices to continue. In Kazakhstan, the patronage network,
which allows the maintenance of authoritarian rule has sprung from natural resources
and the oil companies, whereas in Kyrgyzstan it has developed through foreign
aid donations. Thus, both the
exploitation of natural resources and the generosity of well-intentioned
foreign donors can similarly lead to illiberal political outcomes
_________________________________
Copyright ISCIP 2004
Unless otherwise indicated, all articles appearing in this journal have been commissioned especially
for Perspective.
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