Post-Soviet Chaos: Violence and Dispossession in Kazakhstan (Anthropology, Culture and Society Series)

'Essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of what capitalist globalization means for ordinary people, the grim social and political realities analysed in this book resonate far beyond the former USSR.' John Gledhill, Manchester University In the 1990s the former states of the Soviet Union underwent dramatic and revolutionary changes. As a result of enforced, neo-liberal reforms the fledgling republics were exposed to the familiar effects of globalised capital. Focusing on Kazakhstan, where violence and corruption are now facts of everyday life, Joma Nazpary examines the impact of the new capitalism on the people of Central Asia. Using in-depth interviews and material gathered over more than a year's fieldwork, Nazpary explores the responses of the dispossessed to their dispossession. He uncovers the construction of 'imagined communities', grounded in Soviet nostalgia, which serve to resist the economic order, as well as the more practical survival strategies, especially of women, often forced into prostitution where they are subject to violence and stigma. By revealing the extent to which Kazakh society has disintegrated and the cultural responses to it, Nazpary argues that dispossession has been a stronger unifying force than even ethnicity or religion. Comparing the effects of neo-liberal reforms in Kazakhstan with those in other regions, he concludes that causes, forms and consequences of dispossession in Kazakhstan are particular instances of a much wider global trend In the 1990s, the former Soviet states of Central Asia experienced dramatic, revolutionary changes. Liberal economic reforms have affected every aspect of daily life, a new local elite of Mafia has rapidly taken power, and corruption and violence are now a fact of daily life.Focusing on Kazakhstan, A Global Brothel examinestheimpact of the new capitalism on the everyday lives of the people of Central Asia. The author draws on extensive interviews as well as social and political analyses to explain the extent to which people have been dispossessed. The author assesses the strategies people have used to overcome poverty and insecurity: the new hallmarks of life for nearly everybody; and illustrates well the complex and human responses to the post-Soviet chaos. People And Places -- Bardak : Elements Of Chaos -- Networking As A Response To The Chaos -- Women And Sexualised Strategies : Violence And Stigma -- Construction Of The Alien : Imagining A Soviet Community -- Ethnic Tension -- Conclusions In A Comparative Perspective : Whose Transition?. Joma Nazpary. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 200-208) And Index.