Im zentralasiatischen Kirgistan, einst Teil der Sowjetunion, liegt die Stadt Osch. Sie gilt als Zentrum von Islamismus, politischer Instabilität und Entwicklungshilfe. Doch sie ist zugleich von der Globalisierung in all ihren Facetten geprägt. Stefan B. Kirmse zeigt, was dies für den Alltag junger Menschen bedeutet: Sie sind in besonderer Weise wirtschaftlichen Zwängen und sozialem Druck unterworfen. Sie bewegen sich zwischen globalen Medien, religiösen Strömungen und westlichen Geldgebern und nutzen globale Verflechtungen auf vielfältige Art. Ein ethnografisches Porträt, das Erfahrungen von Postsozialismus und Globalisierung im muslimischen Raum miteinander verbindet. The Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is home to the city of Osh - a city renowned as an epicenter of Islamism and political instability. Yet, it is also shaped by globalization in all its manifestations. Stefan Kirmse explores what this means for young people's everyday lives. He shows that youth move between global media, religious groups and Western donors, crafting their own unique experiences of globalization in an ongoing process of bricolage. At the same time, they are subject to particular economic constraints and communal expectations.

Youth in South and Central Asia: A Discourse of Changes and Challenges aims at presenting the well-rounded accounts and analysis vis--vis young peoples transitions and cultures in South and Central Asia. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the book scrutinizes themes including globalization, cultural practices, education, labour market, migration, social security and mental health issues among youth. To this end, the book makes a significant contribution to youth studies in Asia.

At the onset of the twenty-first century, ‘youth studies’ emerged as a distinct field of inquisition. Discourses and debates in the field have since become more sophisticated, and the spectrum of analysis has likewise broadened. However, it is striking to note how little reference is made to young people of peripheral regions like Central Asia. The Sociology of Central Asian Youth seeks to critically broaden the discussion on youth transitions discourse by moving beyond the geographical terrain of North America, Britain, Australia and Western Europe. The work establishes an in-depth understanding of young Central Asians, with a special focus on those in Uzbekistan. This is accomplished through the explanatory powers of the various forms of sociological theory and, specifically, by pursuing an ambitious aim: to introduce the classic sociological debate about the relationship between structure and agency in social behaviour into the study of modern Central Asia. Presenting the experiences of youth against the backdrop of contemporary socio-economic and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space, this empirical monograph will appeal to postgraduate students and post/doctoral researchers interested in fields such as Youth Studies, Central Asian Studies, Social Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Sociology.

The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in the heart of Central Asia is home to the city of Osh, which is commonly discussed as an epicenter of radical Islamism and political instability, yet also fully globalized. Stefan Kirmse explores what this means for the everyday lives of the city's young people. By focusing on the myriad ways in which young Muslims experience globalization, this book offers an alternative to the standard sensationalist accounts of post-Soviet Central Asia that discuss the region in terms of an "Islamic threat," political instability, and inter-ethnic strife.

Since the start of the 1990s, Central Asia has been the main purveyor of migrants in the post-Soviet space. These massive migrations due to social upheavals over the last twenty years impact issues of governance; patterns of social adaptation; individual and collective identities; and gender relations in Central Asia. This volume raises the importance of internal migrations, those at a regional, intra-Central Asian, level, labor migrations to Russia, and carries us as far away to the Uzbek migrants based in Istanbul, New York, or Seoul, as well as to the young women of Tashkent who head to Germany or France, and to the Germans, Greeks, and Jews of Central Asia who have returned to their “ethnic homelands”. Contributors include Aida Aaly Alimbaeva, Stéphanie Belouin, Adeline Braux, Asel Dolotkeldieva, Olivier Ferrando, Sophie Hohmann, Nafisa Khusenova, Erica Marat, Sophie Massot, Saodat Olimova, Sébastien Peyrouse, Luisa Piart, Madeleine Reeves, Elena Sadovskaya.