Abstract

In this pioneering ethnographic study of identity and integration, author Philipp Schröder explores urban change in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek from the vantage point of the male youth living in one neighbourhood. Touching on topics including authority, violence, social and imaginary geographies, interethnic relations, friendship, and competing notions of belonging to the city, Bishkek Boys offers unique insights into how post-Socialist economic liberalization, rural-urban migration and ethnic nationalism have reshaped social relations among young males who come of age in this Central Asian urban environment.

“Meticulously researched, theoretically strong, scrupulously annotated – in other words, this is an excellent book.” · Shirin Akiner, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University

“This attractively written book is a tribute to the realities of urban life in Central Asia, as seen through the perspective of young men in search of respect and authority, while dealing with the fall out of larger socio-political upheavals” · Mathijs Pelkmans, London School of Economics

Philipp Schröder is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute for Asian and African Studies. Until 2011 he was a member of the research group ‘Integration and Conflict’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale and received his PhD from the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.