Journal article: ‘Water Is Life’-Farmer R in Khorezm, Uzbekistan: A Lifeworld Analysis
Abstract: Khorezm Province is located in the Amu Darya lowlands ofUzbekistan, where unsustainable use of irrigation water has led to the Aral Sea crisis. This study deals with the question of how farmers in Khorezm perceive water and its management and how this facilitates or prevents water conservation, or “water saving,” in irrigated agriculture. To…
Journal article: The Benefits of Marginality: The Great Famine around the Aral Sea, 1930-1934
Abstract: Based on research in Kazakhstani and Russian archives, this article is a regional study of the 1931–1933 Soviet famine. It compares Soviet policies in the southern and northern “halves” of the Aral Sea region. While the Kazaks in the northern part of the region suffered from the famine, the Karakalpaks in the south did…
Journal article: The Fluctuating Aral Sea: A Multidisciplinary-Based History of the Last Two Thousand Years
Abstract: The Aral Sea (an intracontinental saline lake in western Central Asia) is of great interest because of its rapid shrinkage during the last 50 years, which caused catastrophic environmental and socio-economic consequences for the region and its population. Geoscientists established the existence of similar multiple fast and deep lake level fluctuations in the past;…
Journal article: Canals, Cotton, and the Limits of de-Colonization in Soviet Uzbekistan, 1924–1941
Abstract: Why were cotton monoculture and megalomaniac irrigation projects the outcome of the Soviet modernization policies in Uzbekistan? How were economic development and nationality policy related? Which results did policy implementation produce on the ground and within the Uzbek ruling elite? The article argues that these questions can be seen in a new light when…