IFEAC-ZMO webinar “Population science and politics in late Soviet Central Asia. Social hierarchies and (anti)imperialism”

The French Institute for Central Asian Studies (IFEAC) and the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) are pleased to invite you to the presentation by Lucia Direnberger, sociologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), entitled:

Population science and politics in late Soviet Central Asia. Social hierarchies and (anti)imperialism*

This webinar opens a series of joint scientific events called “Bishkek Calling Berlin”.**

Date / Time : February 21, 2024 at 16:00 Bishkek (11:00 Berlin).

Language : English.

Zoom link to register to the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZclcOytqj0uGd2WS4LH4UNpt-tzIODjTZSQ

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* The Soviet Union has heavily invested in measuring , evaluating and transforming its population. Population science was officially placed at the service of the State to transform societies which were considered to be the most resistant to Sovietisation such as Central Asia. Scientists, mainly economists, statisticians, ethnologists, historians and demographers, have consistently asserted that Central Asian societies could only develop if the family was transformed. From 1971 until 1991, demographic issues were at the centre of scientific and political debates. Scientists debated about reasons, consequences and solutions about what was analyzed as the main problem: demographic growth in Central Asia in comparison with low birth rates in Slavic republics. In this context, expertise on the family – which deals with subjects as diverse as children’s education hygiene, women’s liberation and work, sterilisation, abortion and contraception, alcoholism, maternity leave, ‘mixed’ marriages – underwent significant transformations. This production of population science and expertise on the family became a privileged site for analyzing the growing tensions between the imperial centre and the Soviet peripheries.

** “Bishkek Calling Berlin” is a series of online talks co-organised by the Institut Français d’Études sur l’Asie Centrale (IFEAC), based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), based in Berlin, Germany. It brings together two research institutes internationally renowned for their scholarly focus on Central Asia, with the aim of offering scholars with an interest in the region an interdisciplinary platform to exchange and network. The series represents the initial stride in a wider collaboration initiative between IFEAC and ZMO, which we envisage to foster academic exchange and mobility, as well as collaborative research endeavours that transcend disciplinary and geographical boundaries to enhance knowledge about Central Asia.

Organised by Adrien Fauve (IFEAC) & Nikolaos Olma (ZMO).