III. “Geographic Perspectives on Soviet Central Asia”*

A dramatic population increase coupled with a reduction in per capita investment is producing a “demographic cauldron” in Soviet Central Asia. This was the focus of Professor Lewis's December 7 lecture. In his presentation, Professor Lewis outlined the political, economic and social conditions that frame a grim picture for Central Asia. The region is plagued by an unfavorable convergence of factors: a rapidly growing rural population, especially the indigenous population which is concentrated in rural areas, labor surpluses, relatively little rural or northward out-migration, deteriorating economic conditions especially in rural areas and environmental degradation, along with significant social development and, thus, rising expectations and national awareness. At current growth rates, the indigenous, the rural, the total, and the rural working-age populations will double about every generation or less. Besides, there has been little effort on the part of the central government to shift investment and resource allocation priorities to accommodate the demographic changes.

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Central Asia: A Comprehensive Crisis and Scenarios for the Future

Journal of International Analytics ◽

10.46272/2587-8476-2015-0-3-34-55 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 34-55

Author(s):

A. Kazantsev

Keyword(s):

Central Asia ◽

Scenario Analysis ◽

Great Variability ◽

Systemic Analysis ◽

Short And Long Term ◽

Soviet Central Asia ◽

Political Economic ◽

High Degree ◽

Further Development

The paper suggests a systemic analysis of the perspectives of development of situation in Post-Soviet Central Asia. Interconnection between the tendencies in different spheres (political, economic, military, social and demographic) is analyzed. The author ascertain the fact of complex and multilateral crisis and also states high degree of uncertainty of further development of regional situation, which is indicated by a great variability of scenarios of further development. The analysis is fulfilled both in short- and long-term perspectives. The study is carried out in two steps: for each of temporal perspectives respective drivers that presently exist are selected. Also, potential qualitative discontinuities that can lead to principal changes of situation are defined within scenario analysis.

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THEODORE LEVIN, The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York) (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1996, repr. 1999). Pp. 335.

International Journal of Middle East Studies ◽

10.1017/s0020743801362062 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 320-322

Author(s):

OWEN WRIGHT

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Central Asia ◽

Rural Areas ◽

The South ◽

Indiana University ◽

General Introduction ◽

Impossible Task ◽

Urban And Rural Areas ◽

Soviet Central Asia ◽

Travel Accounts

As the first general introduction to the musical worlds of the successor states to Soviet Central Asia, this admirable work fills an important gap. Moreover, it does so in an individual and highly attractive way, eschewing the would-be objectivity of a dryly analytical monograph in favor of a looser framework of travel accounts, each rich in specific and revelatory detail but, at the same time, developing a series of thematic constants. To cover all of Central Asia in this way would have been an impossible task, however, and what we are presented with is in essence an exploration of widely separated and contrasting urban and rural areas of Uzbekistan supplemented by forays into northern Tajikistan. Beginning in Tashkent, the itinerary proceeds successively through Bukhara, Surxandarya, and Qashkandarya in the south, and Khorezm; then to Tajikistan (the Upper Zaravshan and Yagnâb, and Shahristan); and finally (following the fortunes of Bukharan Jewish émigré musicians) to New York.

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Back to Islam? Women's Sexualities and Body-Politics in Muslim Central Asia

Hawwa ◽

10.1163/156920806779152264 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 4 (2-3) ◽

pp. 181-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Julia Droeber

Keyword(s):

Soviet Union ◽

Central Asia ◽

Daily Practice ◽

Sex And Gender ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

Central Asian ◽

Anthropological Fieldwork ◽

And Gender ◽

Soviet Central Asia ◽

Political Economic

AbstractIn this paper I examine the commonly held assumption that the developments we witnessed in Central Asian societies since the disintegration of the Soviet Union could be interpreted as a "return to pre-Soviet Islamic traditions". I am specifically concerned with reports about the increasing violations of women's sexual rights and mounting control over their bodies, developments that are accompanied by a "conspiracy of silence" about sexual matters.This essay is based on anthropological fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan, various reports from other Central Asian republics, a review of Soviet sex and gender policies, and analysis of Islamic Scriptures on the issue of sexuality. Even though some Muslim practices regarding sexualities can be seen as having a basis in the Qurān, the interpretations and translations into daily practice are to a major extent influenced by political, economic, and socio-cultural forces. I trace these processes in the case of Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia and argue that the rhetoric of a "return to Islamic traditions" does not take into account the significant impact on other forces on the current practices of policing women's bodies and silencing discourses on sexualities.

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25 Years of Rural Development in post-Soviet Central Asia: Sustaining Inequalities

Eastern European Countryside ◽

10.2478/eec-2018-0004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 63-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Max Spoor

Keyword(s):

Rural Development ◽

Central Asia ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Growth Models ◽

Sustainable Growth ◽

Capital City ◽

Urban Rural ◽

Soviet Central Asia ◽

Energy Dependent ◽

Natural Resource Wealth

Abstract To show that post-Soviet rural development in Central Asia has been confronted with sustained inequalities, three particular factors are analysed in this paper have being viewed as fundamental in influencing national and rural development. Firstly, most countries have based their growth models on economic nationalism (not only creating borders and national institutions, but also choosing inward-looking strategies), while leaning one-sidedly on their natural resource wealth (carbohydrates such as oil, natural gas and minerals, but also industrial crops like cotton). Secondly, and related to the first explanatory factor, the region has been struck by hidden and open resource-based conflicts, in particular on land and water. Inter-state tensions have emerged, in particular between downstream (irrigation water dependent) countries, such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and the upstream (hydropower energy dependent, and carbohydrate-poor) ones, such as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Thirdly, all the countries analysed here have followed a rather unequal capital city-centric growth model, using the proceeds of exports of mineral wealth (or cotton) for rapid urbanisation with little or no investment in rural development, resulting in a growing urban-rural divide and increasing rural-urban and cross-border migration. While it is recognised that this region is indeed a bridge between West and East (also re-emphasised by the Chinese ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative), it is argued in this paper that there is a need to reduce these inequalities and unbalanced growth, being that they will be an obstacle to the sustainable growth and development of rural areas.

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US-China Competition in Eurasia

China's Western Horizon ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190680190.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 157-190

Author(s):

Daniel S. Markey

Keyword(s):

Middle East ◽

South Asia ◽

Central Asia ◽

Political Reform ◽

The Other ◽

Economic Conditions ◽

The Political ◽

Political Consequences ◽

Benign Neglect ◽

Political Economic

This chapter summarizes the interplay between China and South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, then assesses the geopolitical implications for America, and offers recommendations for US policy. Marshalling evidence from previous chapters, it shows that anticipating the political consequences of China’s overseas activities in any particular instance requires an appreciation of the other state’s preexisting domestic political-economic conditions and geopolitical relationships. It finds that across Eurasia, China’s involvement tends to undercut healthy pressure for economic and political reform within states and appears to be exacerbating or rekindling tensions among them. The chapter evaluates current US policy in the context of global competition with China and identifies a range of strategies for Eurasia, including “benign neglect,” “peaceful accommodation,” “critical publicity,” “selective competition,” and “militarized competition.” To make the most of America’s limited influence, it argues that US policymakers should pursue a selective and localized strategy in Eurasia.

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Does “Rural” Always Mean the Same? Macrosocial Determinants of Rural Populations’ Health in Poland

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17020397 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 397

Author(s):

Paulina Ucieklak-Jeż ◽

Agnieszka Bem

Keyword(s):

Rural Areas ◽

The Other ◽

Determinants Of Health ◽

Rural Populations ◽

Economic Conditions ◽

Demographic Structure ◽

Urban Centers ◽

Remote Areas ◽

Working Age ◽

Working Age Population

Rural areas, as well as urban ones, are not homogeneous in terms of social and economic conditions. Those surrounding large urban centers (suburban rural areas) act different roles than those located in remote areas. This study aims to measure the level of inequalities in social determinants of health (SDH) between two categories of rural areas. We pose the following research hypotheses: (hypothesis H1) rural areas in Poland are relatively homogenous in the context of SDH and (hypothesis H2) SDH affects life expectancies of rural residents. Based on data covering all rural territories, we found that rural areas in Poland are homogenous in SDH. We also find important determinants of health rooted in a demographic structure—the feminization index and a ratio of the working-age population. On the other hand, we cannot confirm the influence of commonly used SDH-GDP and unemployment rate.

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Aleksandr Minkin: A pioneer of investigative journalism in Soviet Central Asia (1979–1991)

Journalism ◽

10.1177/1464884917751305 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 21 (11) ◽

pp. 1727-1742 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Riccardo Mario Cucciolla

Keyword(s):

Central Asia ◽

Child Labor ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Public Awareness ◽

Political Debate ◽

Investigative Journalism ◽

The Republic ◽

Soviet Russia ◽

Soviet Central Asia ◽

First Time

In the 1980s, Aleksandr Minkin was a young Russian journalist at the beginning of a brilliant career as a literary and theater critic. During his tours in Central Asia, he turned to investigative journalism, reporting on the unstable circumstances in Soviet peripheries, painting a picture for the Soviet public of the brutal side of Bolshevik modernization, such as cotton monoculture in Uzbekistan, the exploitation of peasants, the spread of deformities and disease in children due to the abuse of defoliants and pesticides in rural areas, widespread corruption, as well as the general social backwardness of the most remote areas of the USSR. In 1988, the magazine Ogonek published Minkin’s famous piece ‘khlopkorab’ (cotton slave) – denouncing for the first time in the Soviet press the exploitation of child labor in the cotton fields – as well as other articles revealing the use of dangerous Butifos defoliant, and the spread of illness in the republic. These articles caused a sensation and were at the center of a political debate during perestroika that both thrilled Soviet readers and frightened the Communist party. Minkin was viciously attacked by the official press and endured the surveillance of Soviet security authorities, as well as of foreign intelligence agencies. However, the campaign to discredit him could not cover the scandals up entirely, and Minkin became a symbol of free journalism, and a liberal intellectual figure in post–Soviet Russia, raising public awareness of social and environmental issues in Central Asia that had been officially hidden for decades.

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Three hundred years of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) persecution in Germany

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.2007.34.2.307 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 34 (2) ◽

pp. 307-317 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

J. SEITZ

Keyword(s):

Rural Areas ◽

House Sparrow ◽

Bird Species ◽

Passer Domesticus ◽

Second World War ◽

Population Increase ◽

World War ◽

Large Numbers ◽

Urban And Rural Areas ◽

Second World

Modernization of agriculture, economic development and population increase after the end of the Thirty Years' War caused authorities in many parts of Germany to decree the eradication of so-called pest animals, including the House Sparrow. Farmers were given targets, and had to deliver the heads of sparrows in proportion to the size of their farms or pay fines. At the end of the eighteenth century German ornithologists argued against the eradication of the sparrows. During the mid-nineteenth century, C. L. Gloger, the pioneer of bird protection in Germany, emphasized the value of the House Sparrow in controlling insect plagues. Many decrees were abolished because either they had not been obeyed, or had resulted in people protecting sparrows so that they always had enough for their “deliveries”. Surprisingly, various ornithologists, including Ernst Hartert and the most famous German bird conservationist Freiherr Berlepsch, joined in the war against sparrows at the beginning of the twentieth century, because sparrows were regarded as competitors of more useful bird species. After the Second World War, sparrows were poisoned in large numbers. Persecution of sparrows ended in Germany in the 1970s. The long period of persecution had a significant but not long-lasting impact on House Sparrow populations, and therefore cannot be regarded as a factor in the recent decline of this species in urban and rural areas of western and central Europe.

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