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| 1 |
ID:
185925
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper traces the changes and continuities in the cityscape of Soviet Samarkand following the launch of the mass housing campaign under Nikita Khrushchev. It examines the planning, building, appropriation, and renovation of public and private housing on the level of practices rather than policies and discourses. The paper relates these practices to the specific temporalities of Samarkand’s landscape, such as the life cycles of inhabitants, the change of seasons, or the timelines of material decay, among others. It shows that self-help building often proved to be more effective than state projects in addressing these temporalities. Drawing on site-specific cultural, material, and technical repertoires, self-help building was more than a pragmatic reaction to the housing shortage. It sustained the traditional Central Asian neighbourhood that Soviet planners hoped to banish from the urban landscape and was key to the expansion and diversification, rather than homogenization, of the ‘Soviet’ cityscape.
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| 2 |
ID:
185920
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| Summary/Abstract |
This issue is dedicated to the question of how research on technology and its inherent temporality and materiality can enhance our understanding of geography, culture and history in Central Asia. The articles provide fresh ideas on Central Asia as a region by unpacking the “hard” infrastructural base of its cultural, social, and economic geography. They offer a more inclusive view on Central Asian landscapes, focusing on permanent material structures and vernacular practices that are often overlooked in conventional historiography and social studies research. Finally, they explore how research on technology both supports and challenges the primacy of political history in defining the historical periods and legacies of Central Asia. The papers cover about 150 years of history, with case studies on what are today Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia. This introductory essay summarizes their key insights, situating them in a wider debate on technology in and beyond Central Asia.
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