1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910828938703321

Autore

Laruelle Marlène

Titolo

Kazakhstan in the making : legitimacy, symbols, and social changes / / Marlene Laruelle

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lanham, Maryland : , : Lexington Books, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

1-4985-2548-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (305 pages)

Collana

Contemporary Central Asia : Societies, Politics, and Cultures

Disciplina

327.5845073

Soggetti

Kazakhstan Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- The State: Ruling Mechanisms and Symbols-- The Rule by Law -- The Kazakh Neopatrimonial Regime -- Shrek Meets the President -- Shrines and Neopatrimonialism in Southern Kazakhstan -- The Nation: Conflicting Legitimacies and Repertoires -- Nationalizing Elites and Regimes -- Imagining Kazakhstani-stan -- Which Future for National-Patriots? -- The Landscape of Kazakh Nationalism -- Cowboys, Gangsters, and Rural Bumpkins -- The Society: Negotiating Cultural Changes -- Building a Muslim Nation“ -- The Spirit of Tengri” -- Return Migration from the United States -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Editor and Contributors

Sommario/riassunto

Kazakhstan is one of the best-known success stories of Central Asia, perhaps even of the entire Eurasian space. It boasts a fast growing economy—at least until the 2014 crisis—a strategic location between Russia, China, and the rest of Central Asia, and a regime with far-reaching branding strategies. But the country also faces weak institutionalization, patronage, authoritarianism, and regional gaps in socioeconomic standards that challenge the stability and prosperity narrative advanced by the aging President Nursultan Nazarbayev. This policy-oriented analysis does not tell us a lot about the Kazakhstani society itself and its transformations.This edited volume returns Kazakhstan to the scholarly spotlight, offering new, multidisciplinary insights into the country's recent evolution, drawing from political science, anthropology, and sociology. It looks at the regime's



sophisticated legitimacy mechanisms and ongoing quest for popular support. It analyzes the country's fast changing national identity and the delicate balance between the Kazakh majority and the Russian-speaking minorities. It explores how the society negotiates deep social transformations and generates new hybrid, local and global, cultural references.