TY - GEN
T1 - The heart of Eurasia? Kazakhstan's centrally located capital city
AU - Koch, Natalie
N1 - Funding Information:
Many thanks to Mateusz Laszczkowski for his feedback on earlier drafts. This material is based upon work supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 1003836. This research was also supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, an NSF Nordic Research Opportunity grant, an IREX Individual Advanced Research Opportunity Grant, and a US State Department Title VIII Grant for work at the University of Illinois Summer Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, or any other granting organization.
PY - 2013/6/1
Y1 - 2013/6/1
N2 - In a world still dominated by a geopolitical system of territorial states, one tool in the state- and nation-building repertoire is the strategy of moving a capital from one city to another, and to an ostensibly more central location of a geometrically conceived territory. From Ankara to Brasília, the technique has been used in a variety of places around the world, and Kazakhstan's new capital since 1997, Astana, is one more recent iteration. Taking a Foucauldian approach to analysing political technologies of government, the author examines the strategy of the centrally located city and considers how it has been instrumental to simultaneously producing a state effect and a territory effect in newly independent Kazakhstan. Part of a larger mixed-methods study, this article draws on a diverse range of methods, including data from interviews, participant observation, textual analysis, focus groups and a country-wide survey.
AB - In a world still dominated by a geopolitical system of territorial states, one tool in the state- and nation-building repertoire is the strategy of moving a capital from one city to another, and to an ostensibly more central location of a geometrically conceived territory. From Ankara to Brasília, the technique has been used in a variety of places around the world, and Kazakhstan's new capital since 1997, Astana, is one more recent iteration. Taking a Foucauldian approach to analysing political technologies of government, the author examines the strategy of the centrally located city and considers how it has been instrumental to simultaneously producing a state effect and a territory effect in newly independent Kazakhstan. Part of a larger mixed-methods study, this article draws on a diverse range of methods, including data from interviews, participant observation, textual analysis, focus groups and a country-wide survey.
KW - Astana
KW - Kazakhstan
KW - capital city
KW - governmentality
KW - state-making
KW - territory
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U2 - 10.1080/02634937.2013.802487
DO - 10.1080/02634937.2013.802487
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880552081
SN - 0263-4937
VL - 32
SP - 134
EP - 147
JO - Central Asian Survey
JF - Central Asian Survey
ER -