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Abstract

This paper examines a key dimension of socio-political change within Kazakhstan’s academic institutions: how state policies are reshaping the professional lives and professional standing of university faculty. Since 2011, requirements to publish in high-impact international journals have effectively established English as the dominant language of scholarly value. This study analyzes the social consequences of this policy within the academic field, raising critical questions about equity in the nation’s project of building a "fair state."

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, symbolic capital, and field, the paper explores how English proficiency has been reconstituted as the primary form of linguistic capital. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 Kazakhstani faculty members conducted for the author's doctoral research, the analysis focuses on a clash of academic habitus: how the ingrained, embodied dispositions of the Soviet-trained professoriate conflict with the new “rules of the game,” which favor a younger, internationally oriented generation.

The paper argues that this dynamic generates new forms of social stratification based not merely on skill, but on the possession and strategic deployment of this specific linguistic capital. It examines the lived experience of navigating this emerging linguistic hierarchy, highlighting both strategies of adaptation and subjective feelings of marginalization. By focusing on the internal social mechanics of the academic field—competition for status, the conversion of linguistic capital into professional advancement, and the resulting inequalities—this paper offers a distinct micro-sociological perspective on institutional change. It contributes to our understanding of how macro-level state policies are experienced and contested by actors on the ground, revealing the social costs of Kazakhstan’s push for global academic integration.