PUBL.- Reports from the Social Research Center at AUCA
Posted by: Social Research Center <src@mail.auca.kg>
Dear Colleagues,
We are glad to bring you the next issue of electronic bulletin presented by
the Social Research Center (SRC) at the American University of Central Asia
(AUCA). This bulletin provides the updates on the SRC's latest electronic
publications.
The SRC is a research unit of AUCA. Its mission is to promote the
long-lasting development of principals and practices of democracy, free
market, rule of law, and social equality in Kyrgyzstan through research,
publications, interdisciplinary studies, conferences, roundtables, and
networking. SRC mainly focuses on four target areas: MIGRATION, ISLAM, NGO
DEVELOPMENT and CORRUPTION.
For more detailed information about SRC, please visit our website at
www.src.auca.kg.
IN THIS ISSUE, please find papers:
MIGRATION:
Labor Migration: The Potential for Development in Kyrgyzstan &
Uzbekistan, by Kursad Aslan
Political Changes and Return Migration to Europe from Across the
Former Soviet Space, by Dr. Benedicte Michalon
Where to Return to? Rural Urban Interlinkages in Times of Internal and
International Labor Migration, by Susan Thieme
ISLAM:
Methodological and Historiographical Perspectives on a Social History
of Islam in Soviet Central Asia, by Eren Murat Tazar
The Contemporary Debate between Islamism and Secularism: Secular and
Islamist Elites in Bishkek, by Baris Isci
Evolving Islamic Identities in Central Asia, by Eric M. McGlinchey and
Abdullo Khakim Rakhnamo (Summary of Lecture)
Islamic Activism in Kyrgyzstan, by Baris Isci
NGO DEVELOPMENT:
Contemporary Trends and Prospects in the NGO Sector Development in
Kyrgyzstan, Roundtable Materials
State-NGO Relations in Health Care in Central Asia by Erica Johnson
Social Entrepreneurship in the US: A Way for Replication by
Non-Governmental Organizations in Kyrgyzstan, by Aida Alymbaeva
All the Truth about NGO Funding in Kyrgyzstan: Numbers and Facts, by
Kanykey Jailobaeva
CORRUPTION:
Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in the Kyrgyz Republic, by
Zarylbek Kudabaev
MIGRATION:
Labor Migration: The Potential for Development in Kyrgyzstan &
Uzbekistan By Kursad Aslan, Visiting Research Fellow, Social Research
Center This paper looks at the economic contexts of Uzbekistan &
Kyrgyzstan, which are connected to the same international economic
system (capitalist world economy), and have similar historic paths
such as colonization by the Soviet Union and gaining recent
independence. With a huge remittance inflow into both Kyrgyzstan and
Uzbekistan within the recent years, these two countries are now facing
a new development puzzle. The outcome would depend on the ability of
two governments to channel these huge private inflows into efficient
investment projects.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Kursad_report_2_eng.pdf
Political Changes and Return Migration to Europe from Across the Former
Soviet Space
By Dr. Benedicte Michalon, Visiting Research Fellow, Social Research Center
This work discusses one particular type of migration, known as ethnic
migration or return migration. It was chosen to talk about this form
of migration because it constitutes the bulk of the initial migrations
from the former Soviet states after the collapse of the Soviet Union -
Jews to Israel, Germans to Germany, Greeks to Greece or Poles to
Poland. In scholarly literature, this special type of migration is
conceived as that in which ethnicity is seen as the leading impetus
for migration, and as a factor that directs the entire migration process.
Download SUMMARY in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/report_migration.pdf
Where to Return to? Rural Urban Interlinkages in Times of Internal and
International Labour Migration, By Susan Thieme, University of Zurich,
Switzerland
Economic and social activities of migrants transcend internal and
international as well as rural and urban divides. Migration circuits
are not bipolar but rather develop towards a multi-local network of
family members putting into question "return" as an often assumed
conclusion to a successful migration. This briefing explores the
multi-local migration patterns of Kyrgyzstan's mobile population
placing return in a wider context and providing recommendations how to
facilitate circular migration and ties to places of origin and new
places of work and living.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/susan_paper_2.pdf
ISLAM:
Methodological and Historiographical Perspectives on a Social History of
Islam in Soviet Central Asia, Visiting Research Fellow, Social Research
Center
The related fields of social history and ethnohistory attempt to
enrich the perspective of the document-bound historian with insight
into the lives and aspirations of real people. It is fair to say that,
due to the nature of their sources, historians have tended to
privilege the state (or at least the lens of the state) in a wide
variety of ways. Indeed, for most ordinary people the word 'history'
calls to mind a series of dates and political events. This, perhaps,
is the legacy of the slant towards political history taken by much
historical writing before the twentieth century and by elementary and
middle school history education through the present day.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Eren2_eng.pdf
Download ARTICLE in Russian here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Malikov_rus.pdf
The Contemporary Debate between Islamism and Secularism: Secular and
Islamist Elites in Bishkek, By Baris Isci, Visiting Research Fellow, Social
Research Center
With the breakup of the Soviet Union, interest in religion has soared
throughout all the successor states. Interest in Islam has been
equally spectacular on the part of Muslims living in Central Asia.
Even though experience of the Islamic revival has particularities to
each country. The common characteristics include emergence of Islam
onto the public space; proliferation of mosques; opportunity of
religious education both abroad and at madrasas and Islamic
institutions at home; the emergence of new sects and religious groups;
great interest in the Arabic script; and the upsurge in the Islamic
publications. Despite these common changes in the religious field,
Islamic revival in Kyrgyzstan carries distinctive features due to
exceptional transformations in social, political, and economic realms;
and unique national and cultural legacies.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Baris2_eng.pdf
Download ARTICLE in Russian here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Baris2_rus.pdf
Evolving Islamic Identities in Central Asia (Summary of Lecture)
By Dr. Eric M. McGlinchey and Dr. Abdullo Khakim Rakhnamo, Visiting
Lecturers, Social Research Center.
The relationship between Islam and the state in Central Asia - and
beyond - is a problematic and often contentious one. Dr. McGlinchey
and Dr. Rakhnamo each presented research suggesting future
opportunities and challenges in this relationship. Dr. McGlinchey
contended that, through ignorance or for political reasons,
governments in the West and in Central Asia tend to divide Muslim
groups into two discrete categories: "radical" and "non-radical." This
oversimplification can lead to bad domestic and foreign policies - and
even conflicts. Dr. Rakhnamo outlined the process through which Muslim
and secular groups managed to end Tajikistan's civil war and find a
compromise between the religious and the secular which all Tajiks
could live with. His presentation offered ideas for how Islam and
secular governments could coexist and warnings about the challenges of
maintaining such arrangements.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/IslamInCA2_eng.pdf
Islamic Activism in Kyrgyzstan,
By Baris Isci, Visiting Research Fellow, Social Research Center.
The Kyrgyz people have long been considered the least "religious" of
Central Asian Muslims by Soviet officials and scholars, foreign
Muslims, politicians, Western researchers, local religious
authorities, and even by the Kyrgyz themselves. Since the breakup of
the Soviet Union, however, the Kyrgyz Muslims have been displaying a
growing interest in Islam, as evidenced in not only the rising number
of mosques and schools and the development of religious literature,
but also in their more active participation in religious activities.
In the relatively liberal religious realm that followed lifting of
restrictions on religious expression after seventy years of radical
secularism in the former Soviet Union, various groups and individuals
have made it their main project to make nominal Muslim Kyrgyz into
"true" Muslim.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Baris_eng.pdf
NGO DEVELOPMENT:
Contemporary Trends and Prospects in NGO Sector Development in Kyrgyzstan,
Roundtable Materials, Bishkek 2007
This is a collection of materials based on a number of roundtables
conducted by SRC and the Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan. The crosscutting
issues discussed extensively during the meetings were the contemporary
dynamics of NGO sector development, the current state of the NGO
sector, and the definition of methodologies and instruments for
researching civil society in Kyrgyzstan. The major goal of all the
meetings was to initiate a dialogue and share viewpoints with regard
to civil society development prospects between representatives of
think tanks and NGO activists in Kyrgyzstan.
Download PUBLICATION in Russian here (part 1):
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/soros_bulletin_eng.pdf
Download PUBLICATION in Russian here (part 2):
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/soros_bulletin_rus_2.pdf
Download PUBLICATION in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/soros_bulletin_eng.pdf
State-NGO Relations in Health Care in Central Asia
By Erica Johnson, Visiting Research Fellow, Social Research Center.
Despite starting the era of independence with state-directed systems
of health care and social protection, post-Soviet Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan now show surprising variation in government
versus private provision of health care and social services. The
government of Uzbekistan has worked to retain Soviet-era welfare
policies and co-opt or exclude nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
from participating in the heath care services, whereas the regime in
Kazakhstan has significantly reduced the socialist welfare state and
opened space for cooperation with private health care providers,
including NGO actors. In a third variant, Kyrgyzstan has retained a
high degree of state control in health care and social protection but
also allowed for the development of NGOs that now compete with the
government in health care and social protection services. Because of
their similar starting points, the difference in institutional design
and state-NGO relations is a puzzling outcome.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Report_Erica_eng.pdf
Social Entrepreneurship in the US: A Way for Replication by Non-Governmental
Organizations in Kyrgyzstan, By Aida Alymbaeva, Director of Social Research
Center
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) started to appear in Kyrgyzstan
in mid-1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Their creation
and development was heavily supported by international development
organizations. At present, NGOs act as powerful civil activists and
important players in the delivery of social services. However, their
strong dependency on foreign aid makes them financially and
institutionally vulnerable. This represents serious concern regarding
their ability to bring about social change in long run. This paper
aims to explain the concept of social entrepreneurship and describe
benefits of social enterprises for sustainable development of NGOs.
The paper also provides recommendations for the replication of the US
social entrepreneurship model in Kyrgyzstan.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Aida_eng.pdf
All the Truth about NGO Funding in Kyrgyzstan: Numbers and Facts
By Kanykey Jailobaeva, Visiting Research Fellow, Social Research Center
Today fundraising is a pressing problem for NGOs in Kyrgyzstan more
than ever before. Donor support to NGOs has reduced lately due to
various changes in their priorities and strategies. Are NGOs ready to
survive without donor support? To find an answer to this question,
Kanykey Jailobaeva analyzed whether NGOs have other sources of funding
which would replace donor grants. Her field report is based on 45
interviews with local NGOs from Chui and Osh oblasts.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/report_3_kanykei_eng.pdf
CORRUPTION:
Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in the Kyrgyz Republic
by Zarylbek Kudabaev, Professor, Doctor in Economics, AUCA
The report explores the tendencies of economic growth in the Kyrgyz
Republic and discusses the methodology of assessing Kyrgyz poverty
levels. It also reflects the progress in alleviating poverty and
extreme poverty. It shows that an increase in average income will
affect poverty more than the re-distribution of resources aimed at
reducing inequality, but to alleviate extreme poverty the poorest part
of the population should be directly supported and involved in the
improving economy.
Download ARTICLE in English here:
http://src.auca.kg/images/stories/files/Kudab_eng.pdf
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