On 19 May, I gave a seminar as part of my visiting period at the School of Public Policy at Nazarbayev University in Astana. It was a fantastic experience presenting many aspects of my research to very engaged colleagues in Kazakhstan’s capital. I want to thank Professor Dina Sharipova for organising this for me and the School for the fantastic hospitality. I will be there until 31 May. If you are around, please get in touch! A short abstract of my talk below:
What if we looked at connectivity in Central Asia not just as infrastructure or trade, but as a site for rethinking power and agency? Uzbekistan’s recent shift—opening to new partners, aiming to join the WTO, and adopting a more liberal discourse—raises key questions: is this just diversification, or something more ambitious? Can a state-led strategy genuinely create space for emancipation, or does it risk reproducing old hierarchies in new forms? And how do everyday actors—workers, migrants, local communities—respond to, shape, or resist these agendas? I argue that practitioners and researchers alike need to start thinking beyond binaries like East vs West or development vs dependency, and instead ask: whose connectivity, and for what future?
Frank Maracchione 