CASI RESEARCH SEMINAR: Practices of memory in the post-Soviet everyday: remembering collective agriculture in Northern Kyrgyzstan. Preliminary insights from the field

May 18, 2016

May 18, 2016

SPEAKER: Ottavia Cima, PhD student, Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, CASI Visiting Scholar

DISCUSSANT: Dr. Svetlana Jacquesson, CASI Director

Abstract: Memory is an often foregrounded, but also highly contested theme in post-Soviet societies. Scholars have broadly investigated the legacies of Soviet and pre-Soviet past in today’s Central Asia, and some have addressed the political implications of specific historical accounts and the active political use of historical narratives to legitimise contemporary processes. However, research has so far neglected the process of the constitution of memory through everyday practices. Ottavia’s doctoral research examines everyday practices of memory in the context of collective farming in Northern Kyrgyzstan. The concept of collective agricultural work has been reinterpreted after independence and today differs radically from the one of the Soviet period. Along the last 25 years, both the national government and international donors have promoted the constitution of agricultural cooperatives in different ways. However, the memory of the working conditions in Soviet collective farms influences – both positively and negatively – the motivation of farmers to join in cooperatives. Aim of the research is to deconstruct the concept of what is often called “Soviet legacy”, and to understand its influence on contemporary practices of cooperation in agriculture.

The talk will present the framework of the research, offering some insights from her on-going fieldwork in the Issyk-Kul region.

Short bio: Ottavia is a PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. For her master thesis, she conducted research in Nepal in the framework of an international development project.

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