Description
Book SynopsisOver the past three decades, Uzbekistan has attracted the attention of the academic and policy communities because of its geostrategic importance, its critical role in shaping or unshaping Central Asia as a region, its economic and trade potential, and its demographic weight: every other Central Asian being Uzbek, Uzbekistan's political, social, and cultural evolutions largely exemplify the transformations of the region as a whole. And yet, more than 25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, evaluating Uzbekistan's post-Soviet transformation remains complicated. Practitioners and scholars have seen access to sources, data, and fieldwork progressively restricted since the early 2000s.The death of President Islam Karimov, in power for a quarter of century, in late 2016, reopened the future of the country, offering it more room for evolution. To better grasp the challenges facing post-Karimov Uzbekistan, this volume reviews nearly three decades of independence. In the first part, i
Trade ReviewThis is an excellent book, one that examines the most pressing issues in contemporary Uzbekistan Combining insights from a rare mix of top specialists, this very readable volume takes a penetrating look into Uzbekistan’s society, culture, and politics. A country with enormous possibility, yet burdened by deep-seated challenges, Uzbekistan highlights the truly multifaceted nature of building a state in this part of the world. Covering migration, economic reform, security threats, and how gender, religion, and culture define Uzbekistan’s rich social fabric, Constructing the Uzbek State is essential reading for anyone interested in this important country. -- Lawrence P. Markowitz, Rowan University
This tour de force of contemporary scholarship on Uzbekistan is as insightful as it is timely. In 2016 the first president of Uzbekistan died after twenty-five years of stern rule and was replaced by a successor who immediately proposed small but significant changes. The analysis in this book will be invaluable to those who want to engage with the opportunities that may arise from new openings in one of the most closed countries in the world. This is the only book on Uzbekistan that has brought together top academic experts who speak the local languages and have lived in and studied the region for many years. The result is a rich and nuanced picture of Uzbekistan’s political, economic, and social life in the early twenty-first century that is accessible to students and policymakers alike. -- Laura Adams, Institute for International Education, author of
The Spectacular State: Culture and National Identity in UzbekistanTable of ContentsIntroduction, Marlene Laruelle Part I: Uzbekistan’s Political Construct Chapter 1: When Security Trumps Identity: Uzbekistan’s Foreign Policy under Islam Karimov, Matteo Fumagalli Chapter 2: The Magic of Territory: Remaking of Border Landscapes as a Spatial Manifestation of Nationalist Ideology, Nick Megoran Chapter 3: Grand Corruption in Uzbekistan’s Telecommunications Sector: Root Causes and Social Costs, Alisher Ilkhamov Chapter 4: Uzbek Political Thinking in the Third Decade of Independence, Morgan Y. Liu Part II: Agriculture and Labor Migration. Changing the Social Fabric Chapter 5: Government, Cotton Farms, and Labor Migration from Uzbekistan, Russell Zanca Chapter 6: Uzbeks in Russia: A New Diaspora or a Transnational Society?, Sergei Abashin Chapter 7: Establishing an “Uzbek Mahalla” via Smartphones and Social Media: Everyday Transnational Lives of Uzbek Labor Migrants in Russia, Rustamjon Urinboyev Part III: Uzbek Islam: State Control, Resilience, and Resistance Chapter 8: Counter-Extremism, Secularism, and the Category of Religion in the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan: Should We Be Studying Islam at All?, Johan Rasanayagam Chapter 9: At the Crossroads of Religion and Regime Security: Teaching Islam in Uzbekistan, Sebastien Peyrouse Chapter 10: Moral Exemplars and Ordinary Ethics: Sufism in Bukhara, Maria Louw Chapter 11: The Evolving “Uzbek Jihad”: Islamist Militant Recruiting and State Responses, Noah Tucker Part IV: Renegotiating Identities and Cultural Legacies Chapter 12: Be(com)ing Uzbek: Patterns of Identification and Processes of Assimilation, Peter Finke Chapter 13: The Nation Narrated: Uzbekistan’s Political and Cultural Nationalism, Marlene Laruelle Chapter 14: Public Life in Private Spaces in Uzbekistan: Women, Religion, and Politics, Svetlana Peshkova Chapter 15: Gender and Changing Women’s Roles in Uzbekistan: From Soviet Workers to Post-Soviet Entrepreneurs, Rano Turaeva-Hoehne
