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Between “imagined” and “real” nation-building: identities and nationhood in post-Soviet Central Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Rico Isaacs  and
Abel Polese
Rico Isaacs*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
Abel Polese
Affiliation:
Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland Institute of Political Science, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ricoisaacs@brookes.ac.uk
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Abstract

Much of the existing literature on nation-building in Central Asia offers a statist top-down approach which focuses on how the nation and nationhood is “imagined” by political elites. In this special issue the contributors provide an analysis which seeks to explore the process of nation-building in Central Asia by addressing the other side of the state-society relationship. The case studies in this collection examine the “grey zone” between “imagined” and “real” differences between state-led policies and discourses related to nationhood and identity and how they are received by different audiences at different levels (regional, national and international). The authors bring to the fore the contested nature of nation-building in Central Asia as well as focusing on new or less conventional analytical tools for the study of nation-building such as cinema, construction projects and elections. This article provides the introduction to the special issue and lays out the contribution the articles make to the existing literature on nation-building in Central Asia. It also sets out the rationale and aims of the collection.

Keywords

Central Asianation-buildingidentity
Type
Introduction
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , May 2015 , pp. 371 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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