Authors:
Provides a critical comparative analysis of neoliberal policies in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
Details the emergence of new class relations and countermovements
Illuminates in all its depth rentierism and its effects on society, politics and the environment
Contains findings based on over 200 qualitative interviews and extensive ethnographic observations
Buy it now
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.
Table of contents (11 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Theorising Rent Extraction
-
Front Matter
-
-
Interrogating the Regime of Rent and Its Justifications
-
Front Matter
-
-
Evaluating Rentier Capitalism
-
Front Matter
-
-
Back Matter
About this book
This book explains and evaluates today’s economic, political, social and ecological crises through the lens of rentier capitalism and countermovements in Central Asia. Over the last three decades the rich and powerful have increased their wealth and political power to the detriment of social and environmental well-being. But their activities have not gone unchecked. Grassroots activism has resisted the harmful and damaging effects of the neoliberal commodification of things.
Providing a much-needed theorisation of the moral economy and politics of rent, this book offers in-depth case studies on finance, real estate and natural resources in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The authors show the mechanisms of rent extraction, their moral justifications and legitimacy, and social struggles against them.
This book highlights the importance of class relations, state-countermovement interactions and global capitalism in understanding social and economic dynamics in Central Asia. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in political economy, development studies, sociology, politics and international relations.
Reviews
“The book provides a timely examination of neoliberalisation, rentier capitalism and social discontents in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan with great analytical depth and conceptual novelty. It will be of great interest to scholars in a wide range of fields. The empirical materials and approaches of this book can be further mobilised to develop comparative understanding of rentier capitalism and its uneven geographies on a global scale.” (Yunpeng Zhang, Housing Studies, Vol. 38 (1), 2023)
“The volume uses various methodologies … . The book brings together not only an expansive list of stakeholders who control rents from various industries and their political positions but also ethnographic data and multiple interviews collected over a decade with the people on the other side of the barricades. The rich narrative makes the book a valuable guide to rent extraction in various industries such as banking, extractive industries, real estate and land ownership in Central Asia.” (Assel Tutumlu, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 74 (10), 2022)
“This book offers a comprehensive, coherent, justice-oriented examination of the social, economic, and political processes … specifically in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. … I want to congratulate the authors, the readership, and the ordinary people of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan—who represent the billions around the world who struggle for their dignity, social justice, and peace—on the publication of this brilliant book, which is also a trailblazer for post-socialist and post-Soviet studies.” (Galym Zhussipbek, Peace Research - The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, Vol. 54 (1), 2022)
“Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents is such a timely and important book. … the book still offers a wonderful structural analysis of the scholarship which is the first to provide an in-depth critical analysis … in Central Asia so much explaining what has happening in other parts of the world. … I certainly recommend Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents because it is an extremely valuable resource for those studying and rethinking political and socioeconomic dynamics in the Central Asian region.” (Kuat Akizhanov, Eurasian Geography and Economics, January 20, 2022)
“This excellent but heart-breaking book describes the tragedy wrought by post-Soviet neoliberal remaking of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Following the advice of US officials, the World Bank and IMF to endow local kleptocracies with privatized public assets, these countries found themselves pressured to act more on behalf of foreign financial institutions and corporations than for their own populations. Their new “rule of law” has turned out to be the rule of investment-dispute courts over-ruling public attempts to charge foreign investors for the ecological and social damages they cause. Domestically, the “free market” law of “property rights” supports creditor privileges leaving an expropriated population in its wake as smallholders are driven into debt, forfeit their homes and are marginalized.” (Professor Michael Hudson, University of Missouri)
“This is a bravely-told analysis of parasitic rentier capitalism in an over-looked part of the global economy. It was unleashed by the folly of the west's shock therapy doctrine imposed on the region in the 1990s. Today's venal oligarchy are the offspring of neoliberal dogma.” (Professor Guy Standing, SOAS, University of London)
“Combining rich empirics with sharp theoretical insights, Sanghera and Satybaldieva reveal how the neoliberalism has facilitated the expansion of wealth of the rentier class at the expense of the poor in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This trenchant analysis is a must read for anyone interested in the nature and trajectories of contemporary capitalism and its unfolding in Central Asia.” (Professor Susanne Soederberg, Queen’s University)
“In this truly exceptional book, Balihar Sanghera and Elmira Satybaldieva have subjected the forms taken by capitalist social relations in post-Soviet Central Asia – especially, the extraction of rent and unearned income – to rigorous analysis. They bring to life the theoretical categories of “moral economy”, and illustrate the countermovements confronting capital, through interviews with people whose relationships with each other are being transformed: lenders and borrowers, city officials and informal settlement dwellers, trade unionists and community activists. This is a brilliant and insightful contrast to the weight of research that views Central Asia through the lens of the geopolitics of elsewhere.” (Professor Simon Pirani, University of Durham)Authors and Affiliations
-
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Balihar Sanghera, Elmira Satybaldieva
About the authors
Balihar Sanghera is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent.
Elmira Satybaldieva is a Senior Research Fellow at the Conflict Analysis Research Centre, University of Kent.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Rentier Capitalism and Its Discontents
Book Subtitle: Power, Morality and Resistance in Central Asia
Authors: Balihar Sanghera, Elmira Satybaldieva
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76303-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-76302-2Published: 01 September 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-76305-3Published: 02 September 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-76303-9Published: 31 August 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXV, 321
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Political Economy/Economic Systems, Development Economics, Regional/Spatial Science