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Accepted Paper:
Understanding contentious politics in Central Asia: comparing protests in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
Medet Tiulegenov
(University of Central Asia)
This paper explores comparatively protests in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan based on media based data while analyzing differences (repertoires, scale, geography, etc.), argues about difficulties of conceptualizing them within existing social movement and contentious politics literature .
Paper long abstract:
Protests do happen in Central Asia though not in all countries and not all the times. This paper explores comparatively protests in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan based on media based data. Based on a comparative approach this paper analyzes differences between these two countries in regard to the ways protests are taking place - types of actors, repertoires of action, geography, etc. The preliminary findings suggest that while two countries experience significant number of protests over year they differ on certain aspects such as geography (Kyrgyzstan's protests being more capital based),
on the substance of claims (Kazakhstan's protests being more social issues oriented) and in some other aspects. The data was compiled up to 2018 and the protests in Kazakhstan during and after the power transition are briefly discussed in regard to the overall findings. The paper also argues about difficulties of conceptualizing post-soviet protests (such as in these two countries) within existing social movement and contentious politics literature.