Rural Transitions in Mongolia and Central Asia

Ariell Ahearn is a human geographer researching the spatial politics of development, environmental governance and mobile pastoralism. She is an academic activist, working closely with rural pastoralists and human rights NGOs in Mongolia to secure legal safeguards for herders facing forced eviction, destruction of cultural and spiritual sites and discrimination.Gantulga Munkherdene is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. He is Executive Secretary of the Mongolian Anthropological Association. Prior to joining Oxford, he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, National University of Mongolia.Takahiro Ozaki is a professor at Kagoshima University, Japan, specialising in anthropology and Inner Asian area studies, mainly using quantitative social research as a methodology. He carries out comparative study on changes in pastoral strategies in Outer and Inner Mongolian pastoral societies. His major work is a book on Pastoral Strategies in Modern Mongolia: Comparative Ethnography of Regime Transformation and Natural Disaster.

• Introduction: Post-Covid Transitions in Inner AsiaAriell Ahearn and Gantulga MunkherdenePart I: Contemporary PastoralismChapter 1.On the Trucks and Trailers: Long-Distance Movement and Digital Transformations among Mobile Pastoralists in Post-Pandemic MongoliaGantulga MunkherdeneChapter 2.Pastoral Society Resilience to Covid-19 Social Disaster in Mongolia’s Bulgan and Sukhbaatar ProvincesTakahiro OzakiChapter 3.Change and Adaptation as a Way of Life: The Case of Qazaq Pastoralists in Western MongoliaPeter FinkeChapter 4.Women Herders’ Changing Role in Mongolian PastoralismTroy Sternberg, Bayartogtokh Tserennadmid and Tugsbuyan BayarbatPart II: Wellbeing and Traditional Foods and MedicineChapter 5.Sealing the Energy: A Report on Food Practices for Nourishment in Western MongoliaMoe TeraoChapter 6.How Production of Airag (Fermented Mare’s Milk) is Changing in Mongolian Nomadic PastoralismYuki Morinaga and Batbuyan Batjav Chapter 7.The Social Significance of Kazakh Chai Feasting in MongoliaChieko HirotaChapter 8.Wild Botanicals of Inner Asia in the Times of a Global Health CrisisSayana NamsaraevaPart III Rural–Urban Dynamics: Networks, Perceptions and Economic RelationsChapter 9.Reconstruction of Pastoral Management and Local Milk Supply in Suburban Areas in MongoliaTakahiro TomitaChapter 10.Hybridity and Vitality of Culture: Mongolian Traditional Performing Arts During and After the Covid-19 PandemicAkira KamimuraChapter 11.Between Khot (City) and Khuduu (Countryside): Negotiating Rural and Urban Identities in Post-Covid MongoliaDaniel J. Murphy, Munkhochir Surenjav, Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo and Bayartogtokh TserennadmidChapter 12.Fragile Networks: The Illusion of the Stable Job in Post-pandemic MongoliaIris PakullaChapter 13.The Role of Covid-19 in Kyrgyz Women’s LivesZalina EnikeevaChapter 14.Conspiracy Theories and Public Discontent in Central Asia: The Role of Sinophobia in Mobilising Societal FrustrationsKemel Toktomushev