• Special Issue of Nationalities Papers on Post-Socialist Cities

    The September 2013 issue of Nationalities Papers features articles on national identity and the post-socialist city. Link (gated) is here.

    The editors, Alexander C. Diener and Joshua Hagen, provide an excellent introductory essay to the special issue. Here's the abstract:

    From socialist to post-socialist cities:
    narrating the nation through urban space

    The development of post-socialist cities has emerged as a major field of study among critical theorists from across the social sciences. Originally constructed under the dictates of central planners and designed to serve the demands of command economies, post-socialist urban centers currently develop at the nexus of varied and often competing economic, cultural, and political forces. Among these, nationalist aspirations, previously simmering beneath the official rhetoric of communist fraternity and veneer of architectural conformity, have emerged as dominant factors shaping the urban landscape. This article examines patterns, processes, and practices concerning the cultural politics of architecture, urban planning, and identity in the post-socialist city. In addition to assessing the main contours of this burgeoning field of research, this article highlights how this special issue of Nationalities Papers contributes to a broader understanding of contemporary cultural and political change in post-socialist urban settings.

  • New Memorial To Journalist Unveiled In Bishkek

    RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service

    Pavlyuk Statue (RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service)

    RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service

    http://www.rferl.org/content/new-memorial-to-slain-journalist/24794220.html

    December 10, 2012

    BISHKEK -- A new monument to prominent Kyrgyz opposition journalist Gennady Pavlyuk has been unveiled in Bishkek.

    The chief of the Kyrgyz presidential office, the Bishkek mayor, and Russian Embassy officials were present at the ceremony on December 10.

    The first monument to the journalist was unveiled in October 2011, but it was stolen in May.

    Pavlyuk, who was of Russian origin, died several days after being thrown from a building in Almaty in December 2009.

    His arms and legs had been bound.

    Pavlyuk's relatives and colleagues allege that the murder was politically motivated because he had joined the opposition movement against former President Kurmanbek Bakiev and his government.

    A former Kyrgyz security service officer and two Kazakh citizens were found guilty of involvement into Pavlyuk’s murder and given prison sentences last year.

    Copyright (c) 2012. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.