Gender, Activism, and International Development Intervention in Kyrgyzstan (Inner Asia Book, 13)

Gender, Activism, and International Development Intervention in Kyrgyzstan draws on feminist critiques and ethnographic data to interrogate how development has been implemented in Kyrgyzstan since 1991. Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction 1 A Note on Central Asian Women 2 Methodology 3 Outline Chapter 2 Gender and Development in Soviet Kyrgyzstan 1 Women in Pre-Soviet Central Asia 1.1 Women Warriors 2 The Soviet Development Project in Central Asia 2.1 Bolshevism and the ‘Woman Question’ 2.1.1 Legislative Reform 2.1.2 Hujum 2.1.3 The Zhenotdel 2.2 The Stalinist Period 2.2.1 The Woman Question Is Solved 2.2.2 Entry into Education and the Paid Labour Force 3 Gender Equality in the Soviet Union Post-Stalin 3.1 The Soviet Social Contract 3.2 Worker-Mothers 3.3 Those Who Did Not Fit 3.3.1 Disability in the USSR 3.3.2 ‘There Was No Sex in the Soviet Union’ 4 Gender Equality and the Gendered Social Contract in the Kirgiz SSR 4.1 Education 4.2 Employment 4.3 Women in Political Life 4.4 The Private Sphere 5 The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Transition Period 5.1 The Transition to a Market Economy 5.1.1 Society in Flux 5.1.2 Unemployment and the Rolling Back of the State 5.1.3 New Possibilities and Opportunities 5.2 The Gender Backlash? 6 Conclusion Chapter 3 Development and Civil Society in Kyrgyzstan 1 Theories of Citizenship 1.1 Liberal Citizenship 1.2 Citizenship in State Socialist Regimes 1.3 Neoliberal Citizenship 2 Theoretical Approaches to Civil Society 3 Civil Society and Citizenship in Development 3.1 Operationalising Civil Society in Development 3.2 Active Citizens in Development 3.2.1 Operationalising Active Citizenship 4 Civil Society and Development in Kyrgyzstan 4.1 Accounts of Civil Society in Central Asia 4.2 Civil Society in the Soviet Period 4.3 The Perestroika and Glasnost’ Period 4.4 Donor-Driven Civil Society 4.5 Local Understandings of Civil Society in Kyrgyzstan 4.6 New Value Systems 5 Conclusion Chapter 4 Development Intervention in Kyrgyzstan: Supporting Women’s Rights and Gender Equality 1 Gender and Women’s Rights in Development 1.1 Women in Development (WID) and Women and Development (WAD) 1.2 Gender and Development (GAD) 1.2.1 Gender Mainstreaming 1.2.2 The Critique of GAD 1.3 From GAD to Women’s Rights and Gender Equality 2 Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Development in Kyrgyzstan 2.1 National-Level Gender Policy 2.2 The Gender-Focused NGO Boom 2.3 Violence against Women: Crisis Centres 2.4 Women’s Political Participation as a Development Issue 2.5 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Rights in Development 3 Conclusion Chapter 5 Gender-Focused NGOs in Bishkek 1 Gender-Focused NGO s in Bishkek 1.1 The NGO Sector in Kyrgyzstan 1.2 Characteristics of Gender-Focused NGOs 1.2.1 Lack of Unity 1.2.2 Leadership 1.2.3 Sustainability and Grant Chasing 1.2.4 Urban Location 2 Case Studies 2.1 Case Study 1: the Women’s Crisis Centre 2.2 Case Study 2: the Umbrella Organisation 2.3 Case Study 3: the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Rights Organisation 3 Alignments and Tensions among Gender-Focused NGOs 4 Hierarchies of Age, Language, and Access to Donors 4.1 Age 4.2 Language 4.3 Donors 5 Conclusion Chapter 6 Gender and Activism in Kyrgyzstan 1 Active Citizenship and Civic Engagement in Kyrgyzstan 2 Women and Civil Society 2.1 Civil Society as (Feminine) Gendered Space 2.2 Women in Civil Society in Kyrgyzstan 3 What Counts as Activism? 3.1 Defining Activism in Kyrgyzstan 3.2 Motivations for Activism 3.2.1 Personal Experience 3.2.2 A Sense of Belonging 3.2.3 Commitment to a Cause 3.2.4 Satisfaction from Helping Others 3.2.5 Self-Realisation 4 So, Would You Call Yourself a Feminist? 5 Conclusion Chapter 7 Activist-Professionals in Gender-Focused Development in Kyrgyzstan 1 The NGO Elite in Kyrgyzstan 1.1 Were My Respondents Part of the Elite? 1.2 And Were They Kofebreikniki? 2 Whose Agenda? 2.1 Questioning the Agenda 2.2 Resisting the Crisis Centre Model 2.3 Working for Free 3 Links with Beneficiaries and Grassroots Communities 3.1 The LGBT Rights Organisation: Retaining Community Links in the Face of Professionalisation 4 The Possibility of Transgressive Service Delivery 5 De-Politicisation of Activism 6 Conclusion Chapter 8 Conclusions 1 The Limits of Civil Society? 2 Sustainability of Gender-Focused Activism 3 Beyond Professional Activism 4 Gendered Civil Society 5 Meanings of Citizenship 6 Using Gender 7 Looking Forward Appendix Donors and International Organisations in Kyrgyzstan, as of August 2009 Bibliography Index "The collapse of the Soviet Union brought about the sudden expansion of the 'developing world', as the populations of many of the former Soviet republics were abruptly plunged into poverty and international development agencies rushed to their aid. In this account of development intervention since 1991 in Kyrgyzstan, one of these republics, Joanna Pares Hoare draws on feminist critiques to chart how concepts of gender equality, civil society, and activism came to be instrumentalised in development interventions in the post-Soviet space. Ethnographic data gathered through interviews and observation with employees and volunteers in local NGOs provides further insight into what this has meant for activists in Kyrgyzstan who are striving for progressive social change"-- Provided by publisher