Urban Spaces and Lifestyles in Central Asia and Beyond

This volume contributes new insights to the scientific debate on post-Socialist urbanities. Based on ethnographic research in cities of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia, its contributions scrutinise the social production of diverse public, parochial and private spaces in conjunction with patterns of everyday encounter, identification, consumption and narration. The analyses extend from the transnational entanglements between a Dushanbe bazaar and hyper-modern Dubai to the micro-level hierarchies in a flat-sharing community in Astana. They explore competing notions of urban belonging and aesthetics in Yerevan, the process of urban socialization, local perception of Central Asian Muslims in Kazan and Saint Petersburg, and more, providing a rich tapestry of academic study. Taken together, the case studies address cities as gateways to ‘new worlds’, both local and global, discuss ambitions of states at taming urban landscapes, and illustrate current trends of economic, religious and other lifestyles in urban Central Asia and beyond. This book was originally published as a special issue of Central Asian Survey.

Philipp Schroder is a lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Germany. His teaching and research focuses on urban spaces and mobilities, identities and integration, youth cultures and political economies in Central Asia, Russia and China.