Subject: Interests in the Ferghana Valley
From: jo govaerts (jo.govaerts@soc.kuleuven.ac.be)
Date: Fri Apr 09 1999 - 05:28:42 EDT
Dear all,
I'll take my turn to introduce myself too.First of all I would like to
say I am really pleased to get to know you all, because you all seem to
be working on topics that are of great interest to me. Here in Belgium,
I feel like I might as well be into sci-fi things - to others a person
like me who is carried away by topics related to Central Asia is not
less weird.
First I studied Eastern European Studies, then I studied Social
Anthropology of Development, with regional focus on Central Asia at SOAS
in London. I spent some time working with a Kyrgyz NGO in Osh, doing
research on NGOs and democratisation. I also spent a while in Tatarstan,
but after having visited Kyrgyzstan I am aware the differences are
bigger than the resemblances (whatever Russian Russians may say).
Now in Belgium I am working in the field of conflict resolution (second
track diplomacy), human rights and all that contested stuff. But I lost
my heart in Osh (not in the more personal sense, though) and am looking
for the first occasion to go/come back (if you have any suggestion ...)!
All the topics mentioned so far are of interest to me. I could hardly
add anything to it. I am very interested in the shift in power
relations, authority, responsibility that is currently taking place.
What is left of the Soviet structure? What is the effect of western
ideas, distributed by NGOs etc.? What is the influence of
surviving/reviving traditional structures? And of course, the geopolitic
interests.
I hope we will be able to feel free to discuss all kinds of issues
between us.
Jo Govaerts
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