1st Edition
The Sociology of Central Asian Youth Choice, Constraint, Risk
At the onset of the twenty-first century, ‘youth studies’ emerged as a distinct field of inquisition. Discourses and debates in the field have since become more sophisticated, and the spectrum of analysis has likewise broadened. However, it is striking to note how little reference is made to young people of peripheral regions like Central Asia.
The Sociology of Central Asian Youth seeks to critically broaden the discussion on youth transitions discourse by moving beyond the geographical terrain of North America, Britain, Australia and Western Europe. The work establishes an in-depth understanding of young Central Asians, with a special focus on those in Uzbekistan. This is accomplished through the explanatory powers of the various forms of sociological theory and, specifically, by pursuing an ambitious aim: to introduce the classic sociological debate about the relationship between structure and agency in social behaviour into the study of modern Central Asia.
Presenting the experiences of youth against the backdrop of contemporary socio-economic and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space, this empirical monograph will appeal to postgraduate students and post/doctoral researchers interested in fields such as Youth Studies, Central Asian Studies, Social Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Sociology.
Prologue
1. Introduction
Post/Late Variety Theory, Youth Research and
Central Asian Context
2. Locating Young Central Asian
Recourse to History
3. Uzbek Youth Culture in the Quandary of Transition
4. Constituting Post-Soviet Uzbek identities
Three Types of Youth
5. Young People Facing Post-Soviet "State"
A Landscape of Uzbekistan
6. Epilogue
Mainstreaming Perspectives on Central Asian Pattern
Bibliography
Biography
Mohd. Aslam Bhat is Assistant Professor in Sociology at Govt. Degree College Magam, Jammu & Kashmir, India
"Shifting attention away from youth studies' usual suspects of USA, Northern Europe and Australia, this book represents a much welcomed and important contribution to 'decolonising' knowledge. Bhat does an exceptional job of bringing the particularities of the post-Soviet Central Asian context to the fore, whilst authoritatively grounding these specifics in wider and, indeed, global ongoing debates about young people, social transformation and the continuance of social reproduction".
-- Steven Roberts, Monash University, Australia.
"Bhat offers not only a new take on Uzbek youth from a South Asian perspective that reflects Central Asia's current global and regional entanglements, but also a much-needed bridge between Central Asian Studies and classical sociology".
-- Stefan Kirmse, Humboldt University, Berlin – Germany.
"A very timely, engaging and scholarly text with an interpretative lens. Bhat provides a remarkably clear and lucid picture of the aspirations, anticipations and risks experienced by young people in post-Soviet Uzbekistan, and Central Asia at large, while at the same time locating it within the contemporary sociological debates and discourses very succinctly and in a concise manner".
--Professor Ajay Patnaik, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi – India
The Sociology of Central Asian Youth is an interesting and original study of the youth of Uzbekistan that will certainly initiate new dialogue about youth in all of Central Asia."
-- Timothy May, Professor of Central Eurasian History in the College of Arts and Letters, University of North Georgia.
