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164
albeit many small business owners do complain about the red tape and general corruption issues that inhibit their growth. For now, Almaty does benefit greatly from such a rigorous entrepreneurial spirit of its inhabitants despite these obstacles.
Undoubtedly, Almaty can easily claim the highest level of economic development in Kazakhstan, if not all of Central Asia. The city has a rather advanced market economy for a country in transition; in particular, for a former Soviet Union republic, where a large portion of population grew under the shadow of anti-capitalist socialist ideology. The question is however, do these achievements translate into a fundamental shift of the identity of Almaty’s residents?
Identity
From the preceding discussion it is clear that Almaty is a fast-growing, economically active and relatively open society. Does it provide support for the hypothesis of non-national identity of Kazakhstan, i.e. the relationship between market reforms, FDI and fragmentation of Kazakh national identity? On the one hand, the hypothesis has a rather high probability of being true in Almaty: the former capital is advanced in terms of market economy, it has a high proportion of foreign businesses – they constituted almost 13% of all private business in the city, which is twice the average proportion of businesses with foreign participation across Kazakhstan. (Regiony Kazakhstana v 2009 godu, 2010, pp. 211, 208) Per capita, foreign business proportion in Almaty is much higher than that across the country (See Figure 18). The influence of Russian legacy and culture is also among the highest in the republic – it is probably only higher in the north, closer to Russia and with a larger proportion of the Russian
Object Description
| Title | Market reforms, foreign direct investment and national identity: Non-national identity of Kazakhstan |
| Author | Zhanalin, Azamat |
| Author email | janalin_a@yahoo.com; zhanalin@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | International Relations |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-22 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-04-29 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | English, Robert |
| Advisor (committee member) |
James, Patrick Rorlich, Azade-Ayse |
| Abstract | The present study offers an analysis of the concept of non-national identity in application to the Republic of Kazakhstan as the most likely case. The primary hypothesis is that newly independent states, which are undergoing a rapid transition to market economy and actively pursue integration in the world economy and foreign direct investment, will experience fragmentation of their national identity, defined as non-national identity.; Three sites in Kazakhstan, Almaty, Astana and Aktau, were chosen for the study as representative of the market reforms in the republic as well as the best examples of the country’s pursuit of foreign direct investment and integration into the global economy. The data collected indicates that while Kazakhstan does demonstrate fragmentation of its national identity, it is not necessarily caused by the market reforms and the participation in the global trade. Alternative causal variables such as the Soviet and Russian colonial legacy, intra-ethnic cleavages among the Kazakhs and the prevalence of multi-vector foreign policy were found to contribute to the development of non-national identity of Kazakhstan. The study’s results also suggest that in the last few years, Kazakh identity is experiencing a rather strong revival as well, which may yet counteract the existing factors leading to the emergence of the non-national identity of Kazakhstan. |
| Keyword | identity; nationalism; Kazakhstan; market reforms; globalization; foreign direct investment; national identity; countries in transition; foreign policy; culture; former Soviet Union; Central Asia; patronage networks; energy; oil; post-colonial legacy; nation-state |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Almaty; Astana; Aktau |
| Geographic subject (country) | Kazakhstan |
| Coverage date | 1970/2010 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3812 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Zhanalin, Azamat |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Zhanalin-4506 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume51/etd-Zhanalin-4506.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 170 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 164 albeit many small business owners do complain about the red tape and general corruption issues that inhibit their growth. For now, Almaty does benefit greatly from such a rigorous entrepreneurial spirit of its inhabitants despite these obstacles. Undoubtedly, Almaty can easily claim the highest level of economic development in Kazakhstan, if not all of Central Asia. The city has a rather advanced market economy for a country in transition; in particular, for a former Soviet Union republic, where a large portion of population grew under the shadow of anti-capitalist socialist ideology. The question is however, do these achievements translate into a fundamental shift of the identity of Almaty’s residents? Identity From the preceding discussion it is clear that Almaty is a fast-growing, economically active and relatively open society. Does it provide support for the hypothesis of non-national identity of Kazakhstan, i.e. the relationship between market reforms, FDI and fragmentation of Kazakh national identity? On the one hand, the hypothesis has a rather high probability of being true in Almaty: the former capital is advanced in terms of market economy, it has a high proportion of foreign businesses – they constituted almost 13% of all private business in the city, which is twice the average proportion of businesses with foreign participation across Kazakhstan. (Regiony Kazakhstana v 2009 godu, 2010, pp. 211, 208) Per capita, foreign business proportion in Almaty is much higher than that across the country (See Figure 18). The influence of Russian legacy and culture is also among the highest in the republic – it is probably only higher in the north, closer to Russia and with a larger proportion of the Russian |
