Lectures on Political Economy in Central Asia
September 10, 2019, Room A416, Science Building Zhongbei Campus, East China Normal University
Lecture 2
(11am-12pm)
Gender, debt and dispossession in Central Asia: the Kyrgyz women’s struggle against financial elites
Abstract:
This talk examines how women mobilized against banking and microfinance industry in Kyrgyzstan, a gendered process of capitalist accumulation hidden under the guise of empowerment. The women’s political activism is crucial for understanding state-society relations in the current neoliberalizing context. Drawing on in-depth interviews with female borrowers, the paper examines their strategies to counter indebtedness and dispossession by the financial sector. The paper challenges the dominant clientelist paradigm of Central Asian politics and points to a more complex dynamics at play.
Speaker’s Bio:
Dr. Elmira Satybaldieva is a scholar in Eurasian politics and development, currently based at Conflict Analysis Research Centre, University of Kent. Previously she was a research fellow at the Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland and a visiting fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. Her main area of research interest is political and economic development in the post-Soviet space, with a particular focus on economic strategies, political agency, and state institutions in Central Asia. In addition, she has examined the role international donors in pursuing development and conflict prevention in Central Asia. Her research has resulted in publications in several journals, including the Europe-Asia Studies, Central Asian Survey and International Journal of Politics and Culture and Society. She has advised a range of diplomats and development actors on strategies of engagement in Central Asia.