This book explains and evaluates today’s economic, political, social, and ecological crises through the lens of rentier capitalism and countermovements in Central Asia. Over the last three decades, the rich and powerful have increased their wealth and political power to the detriment of social and environmental well-being. But their activities have not gone unchecked. Grassroots activism has resisted the harmful and damaging effects of the neoliberal commodification of things.
Providing a much-needed theorization of the moral economy and politics of rent, this book offers in-depth case studies on finance, real estate, and natural resources in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. At the event, the book's authors will talk about how their work shows the mechanisms of rent extraction, their moral justifications and legitimacy, social struggles against them, and much more.
Speakers:
Balihar Sanghera is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research. His books include Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents: Power, Morality, and Resistance in Central Asia and Theorising Social Change in Post-Soviet Countries: Critical Approaches.
Elmira Satybaldieva is a scholar in Eurasian politics and development based at the Conflict Analysis Research Centre, University of Kent. She is the co-author of Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents: Power, Morality, and Resistance in Central Asia, and has written on class, gender, and Central Asian politics in leading journals.
Discussant and moderator will be Galym Zhussipbek and Kamila Smagulova, respectively.
Event program
Location: Almaty, 280 Baizakova st., Smartpoint coworking center, Freedom hall
Date and time: 10 June, 10:00 a.m.
We invite everyone to take part. You can fill out the following registration form