Content

European Handbook of Central Asian Studies: History, Politics and Societies

(Available since 10 September 2021)

Editors

Bruno De Cordier

Adrien Fauve

Jeroen Van den Bosch

The handbook consists of five main parts, which categorize the various chapter topics logically and consistently. The introduction contains three chapters: The first containing a solid reflection on the state of the discipline and how Europe has and will educate previous and future generations of Central Asian experts, and how such knowledge fares on the contemporary labor market.

The second chapter delves deeper into the most-asked question of the field: “What is Central Asia?” and hopes to bundle insights from various legacies of scholarship around the world to present not one, but several valid interpretations of where Central Asia starts and where it ends, with some recommendations for readers on what criteria they might want to use to formulate their own interpretation of this intangible research object.

The third introductory chapter presents a range of study and teaching techniques to all potential readers: students, their teachers, scholars, non-academic experts and a wider interested audience. This chapter will show how the various integrated elements of the handbook were designed to strengthen deep and strategic learning, either for self-study or for a classroom setting.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher info

FRONT MATTER

CONCISE ATLAS

I. INTRODUCTION        

• Central Asian Studies: A Maturing Field? – Adrien Fauve (IFEAC & Paris-Saclay)

• Defining and Delineating Central Asia from a European Perspective – Bruno De Cordier (UGent) and Jeroen Van den Bosch (AMU)

• How to use this handbook: Didactic Vision and Study Guide – Justyna Hadaś and Jeroen Van den Bosch (AMU)

II. IDENTITIES AND HISTORICAL ROOTS

• The Original Islamization of Central Asia: From the Arab Frontier Colonies to the ‘Governate Dynasties’ (650-1000) – Bruno de Cordier (UGent)

• Early modern interactions between pastoral nomadic and sedentary societies in the Central Asian culture complex – Vincent Fourniau (EHESS i.c.w. IFEAC)

• Orientalism, Postcolonial and Decolonial Frames on Central Asia: Theoretical Relevance and Applicability – Svetlana Gorshenina (Eur’Obem, CNRS-Sorbonne Univ. i.c.w. Ghent University)

• Central Asia’s Contemporary (post-Soviet) Religious Landscape: A ‘De-Secularization’ in the Making? – Sebastien Peyrouse (George Washington University)

• The Historical Conditioning of Languages and Ethnicities in Central Asia – Gian Marco Moisé and Abel Polese (Dublin City University)

III. SOCIETAL-POLITCAL DYNAMICS

• Clans, Class, Ethnicity and Politics in post-Soviet Central Asia – Jeremy Smith (Zayed Univesity i.c.w. University of Eastern Finland)

• Presidential Elections and Ruling Parties in Central Asia – Adrien Fauve (IFEAC & Paris-Saclay)

• Political Regimes in Central Asia: Tracing Personalist Rule from the Khanates to the Present  – Jeroen Van den Bosch (AMU Poznan)

• Civil Society in Central Asia – Baktybek Kainazarov (National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan i.c.w. AMU)

• Women in Central Asia: Decolonizing Gender Studies – Rano Turaeva-Hoehne (LMU München i.c.w. AMU)

• Contemporary Central Asian Legal Systems in Developmental Context: Genealogy, Political Economy, State Architecture – Scott Newton (SOAS, University of London)

IV. EXTERNAL INTERACTIONS

• History and Evolution of Geopolitics toward Central Asia – Slavomir Horak (Charles University in Prague)

• Between Myth and Reality – The Restauration of the Silk Roads in Central Asia – Sebastien Peyrouse (George Washington University)

• International Relations in Central Asia: A Focus on Foreign Policies (1991-2020) – Catherine Poujol (INALCO i.c.w. IFEAC)

• Terrorism and Security in Central Asia – Maria Raquel Freire and Bernardo Teles Fazendeiro (University of Coimbra)

V. ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT

• Facing the Soviet Legacy: Political Economy and Development Patterns in Central Asia – Luca Anceschi and Julia Schwab (Glasgow University)

• Environmental Geopolitics in Central Asia – Natalie Koch (Maxwell Syracuse Univ., i.c.w. Ghent University)

• Labour Migration from Central Asia to Russia: Laws, Policies and Effects on Sending States – Bhavna Davé (SOAS, University of London)

• Between Sotsgorod and Bazaar: Urbanization Dynamics in Central Asia – Suzanne Harris-Brandts (Carleton University) and Abel Polese (Dublin City University)

VI. CASE STUDIES & OVERVIEW OF LEARNING OUTCOMES

VII. INDICES

• Names
• Concepts
• Events
• Places

BACK MATTER