21.09.2017

Call for papers: Soil degradation and shifting agrarian orders in Central Asia

Workshop of the working group “Salinization and soil degradation as threats to the agrarian orders
in Russia, Kazakhstan/Tajikistan and Australia since 1945” at University of Tübingen’s
Collaborative Research Centre 923, “Threatened Order – Societies under Stress”.

February 5th-6th 2018, Tübingen, Germany

Salinization, erosion and desiccation of agricultural soils is an unbroken trend across Central Asia.
Rooted in Soviet agricultural development policies, this trend has been further exacerbated over the
post-Soviet years, as agricultural infrastructure and supply channels have broken down, water has
become scarcer and agriculture more commoditized. At a time when rural livelihoods have become
more dependent on the income from impoverishing soils and rural environment has been
increasingly depleted, known remedies are either difficult and costly to implement or might require
controversial choices and cooperation that decision makers are unwilling or unable to address. In
most cases, environmental burden resulting from soil degradation is unequally distributed,
deepening already existing social inequalities. While soil degradation can pose grave threat to the
established forms and practices of agriculture by introducing unsustainable health, economic or
environmental costs, this very threat might also be instrumental in obfuscating or cementing the
status quo. As soil degradation is always mediated by its (controversial) perception and
interpretation, it can be a process triggering reflection, debate, change or even protest, and thus also
shifts, losses and reconfigurations in local and non-local agricultural forms of knowledge and
expertise.

The workshop seeks contributions that explore the ramifications of soil degradation on “agrarian
orders” (that is, established knowledge, forms and practices of agricultural production embedded in
ideologies and power relations) in different parts of Central Asia, with a particular focus on
whether/how people and governments respond to and frame the “threat” of soil degradation across
various agricultural settings. Our particular focus is on irrigation-related (i.e. secondary) soil
salinization, but we are also interested in other forms of soil degradation and in case studies from
neighbouring regions (Iran, Afghanistan, Xinjang…).

We ask: how do (or did) different agricultural systems (people, economies, polities) affected by soil
degradation adopt similar or different ways of ignoring/coping/adapting/reacting/resisting a
threatening change to the established agrarian order or ideologically embedded agrarian structure
that surrounds them? What are the implications of this creeping environmental threat for the future
of the environment itself, local populations and livelihoods? How do actors, policies, ideological
framings and manifestations of environmental change interact/intertwine around the issue of soil
degradation (mis-)management? What place does soil salinization have in relation to other forms of
(perceived) degradation? We privilege an approach that prioritizes political ecology/political
economy perspectives on soil salinization or other/related forms of soil degradation.

The workshop aims to combine papers from our research group with contributions
from social (soil) scientists, agricultural economists, historians of agricultural environment,
development experts working on the effects of soil degradation on past or present rural societies.
Our focus is mainly on local contemporary livelihoods and coping strategies; however, since
agricultural legacies are crucial for understanding the present “threat” scenario, contributions
focusing on the historical roots and dimensions of soil degradation will be particularly welcome.
Please send your title and abstract (150-200 words) together with your short biography (or link to
your homepage) until 22nd October 2017 to:

<link>centralasiainfo@yahoo.com

If your paper is accepted, you will hear from us by 17th November 2017. Travel expenditures and
accommodation could be partially or fully reimbursed and, if requested, visa support will be
provided. Publication plans will be discussed over the workshop. To allow for enhanced feedback,
original draft papers (6000-7000 words) will be pre-circulated among the workshop participants and
discussants two weeks prior to the workshop. The language of the workshop will be English;
however, we might also consider papers in Russian.

Questions can be addressed to Mustafa Coşkun [mustafa.coskun(at)uni-tuebingen.de] and/or
Tommaso Trevisani [ttrevisani(at)unior.it]