Paper short abstract:

In the context of the worsening climate crisis and the strengthening of global environmental movements, MoveGreen NGO in Bishkek quite successfully mobilizes urban youth, disoriented in modern conditions, and gives them new guidelines in the formation of identity through eco-consciousness.

Paper long abstract:

Deteriorating urban air quality in major Central Asian cities, and the emergence of new data on air pollution and its impact on health, has given rise to a wave of new urban activism. Along with the already existing and for some time operating organizations, new non-governmental organizations and individual initiatives have appeared in these cities.

In Bishkek, this new activism is especially appealing to urban youth. In this paper, I share my experience of observing and working together with a youth-eco-advocacy-NGO with a young female leader. This NGO has air quality as focus, was founded by foreign actors, but is successfully operating in the context of modern Bishkek and its problems with air. I look at this NGO from the inside, through the personality of its leader. I look at the work, focus, methods, techniques, perspectives, fears and emotional engagement. Air quality and the fight against air pollution was quite a peripheral topic compared to other environmental business-like ideas, such as sewing cotton eco-bags, recycling of plastic and producing eco-food. However, in the context of the worsening climate crisis and the strengthening of global environmental movements, the considered eco-NGO quite successfully mobilizes urban youth of Bishkek, disoriented in modern conditions and gives them new guidelines in the formation of identity through eco-consciousness.

This paper is based on 9-month field research and participant observation, and applies perspective at the intersection of social anthropology, visual/media studies, social movements theory and activism.