Srl | Item |
1 |
ID:
190478
|
|
|
Summary/Abstract |
Over just a few years, numerous Western-style cafés have opened in Kyrgyzstan’s capital and gained popularity. In contrast to existing food-service venues, these new cafés provide superior service, creating incentives to linger. Based on Oldenburg’s theory of the ‘third place’, this article analyses the functions of these cafés and discusses their significance for Bishkek society. Three main functions are identified: first, providing an alternative space for activities usually carried out at home or in the workplace; second, creating a sense of global affiliation; and third, providing a space for solitude within an otherwise traditionally communitarian and family-based society, thus enabling a process of individualisation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
ID:
169263
|
|
|
Summary/Abstract |
This study deals with the contemporary dynamics of urban life in Bishkek. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Central Asian societies have experienced widespread political, economic and socio-cultural transformations. In this context, Western or globalized cultural modes and trends influence Kyrgyzstan's social and cultural life. One of these trends is the increasingly popular coffee culture, with its attendant high-grade coffee brands and fancy cafés changing established consumption patterns. This article focuses primarily on cafés as new places of consumption and communication, but it also examines the intentions and strategies of the café pioneers. We reflect on the emergence of coffee and cafés in Bishkek and show how they have integrated in urban life as ‘third places’. Coffee is breaking away from its commonly soluble form and moving toward an expensive lifestyle product, while the new cafés offer a place for communication that has not existed before.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
ID:
083725
|
|
|
Publication |
2008.
|
Summary/Abstract |
Internal and international labour migration is a main livelihood strategy for many people in rural areas of Kyrgyzstan. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the employable population of Kyrgyzstan is working abroad. However, current labour migration phenomena are not exceptional since Central Asia's history has always been characterized by the movement of people, including external and internal, forced and voluntary, legal and illegal, permanent and temporary, ethnically or economically motivated migration. This article gives an overview of the historical and present migration processes with a special focus on three village communities in rural Kyrgyzstan. It deals with the opportunities and difficulties with which labour migrants and their non-migrating family members are confronted today. The results are based on extensive field work in Kyrgyzstan
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|