Table Of Content“Shiftingattentionawayfromyouthstudies’usualsuspectsofUSA,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 per-
spective that reflects Central Asia's current global and regional entangle-
ments, but also a much-needed bridge between Central Asian Studies and
classical sociology.”
Stefan Kirmse, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
“Avery 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 Cen-
tral 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 studyof
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
This page intentionally left blank
The Sociology of Central
Asian Youth
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 toyoung people of
peripheral regions like Central Asia.
The Sociology of Central Asian Youth seeks to critically broaden the dis-
cussion 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 pur-
suing 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 research-
ers interested in fields such as Youth Studies, Central Asian Studies, Social
Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Sociology.
Mohd. AslamBhatisAssistant Professor in Sociologyat Govt. DegreeCollege
Magam, Jammu & Kashmir, India.
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The Sociology of Central Asian Youth
Choice, Constraint, Risk
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The Sociology of Central
Asian Youth
Choice, Constraint, Risk
Mohd. Aslam Bhat
Firstpublished2018
byRoutledge
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©2018Mohd.AslamBhat
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withoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:Bhat,Mohd.Aslam,author.
Title:ThesociologyofCentralAsianyouth:choice,constraint,risk/
Mohd.AslamBhat.
Description:1Edition.|NewYork:Routledge,2018.|Series:Routledge
advancesinsociology|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2017050637|ISBN9780815380603(hardback)|
ISBN9781351212830(ebk)
Subjects:LCSH:Youth–Asia,Central–History.|Post-communism–Asia,
Central.|Groupidentity–Asia,Central.|Asia,Central–Economic
conditions–1991-
Classification:LCCHQ799.A75B432018|DDC305.2350958–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017050637
ISBN:978-0-8153-8060-3(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-351-21283-0(ebk)
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For Aapa & Daddy Jaan
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Contents
List of figures x
Acknowledgements xi
Prologue xii
1 Introduction: Post-/late variety theory, youth research and the
Central Asian context 1
2 Locating the young Central Asian: Recourse to history 29
3 Uzbekyouth culture in the quandary of transition 56
4 Constituting post-Soviet Uzbek identities: Three types of youth 71
5 Young people facing the post-Soviet ‘state’: A landscape
of Uzbekistan 92
6 Epilogue: Mainstreaming perspectives on the Central
Asian pattern 119
Bibliography 134
Index 155
