Paper long abstract:

The Kazakhstani society has witnessed the growth of civic activism. This growth is not limited to the more visible and political protests that took place across the country, particularly so following the fraudulent presidential elections in 2019, but also included various civic initiatives that focus on changes in urban environment. In my contribution to the conference, I focus on urban grassroots mobilisations in the city of Almaty that have emerged and grown increasingly active in reaction against the transformation of the urban environment. As a rule, the activity of such groups remained unaccounted in former analyses of protest mobilization in the country. In particular, I inquire into factors that move the city dwellers to engage in grassroot mobilization and the challenges they face. By focusing on urban grassroot mobilization the study sheds new light on prospects of collective action in a country that has been notorious for the shrinking of public space over the last three decades. It is argued that collective action should not be understood only in terms of overt forms of political protests, which have grown over the last decade, but also manifest itself in rather hidden or discreet forms of civic mobilization. Ultimately, it is argued that the various and numerous accounts of civic grassroot mobilizations revitalize new forms of citizenship.