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From Truth in Strength to Strength in Truth’: Sociology, Knowledge and Power in Kyrgyzstan, 1966-2003

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From Truth in Strength to Strength in Truth’: Sociology, Knowledge and Power in Kyrgyzstan, 1966-2003 ‘FROM TRUTH IN STRENGTH TO STRENGTH IN TRUTH’: SOCIOLOGY, KNOWLEDGE AND POWER IN KYRGYZSTAN, 1966-2003 A thesis presented by Sarah Suzann Amsler to The Sociology Department in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of • Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Sociology London School of Economics and Political Science London, UK August 2005 © 2005 Sarah S. Amsler All Rights Reserved 1 UMI Number: U209514 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U209514 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 It Library Brrosfi uo(rtt> at rtjimca. and Economic Science %k-Z'z? \ o o (\ ABSTRACT This dissertation is a critical sociology of sociology in Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia. It explores the construction of sociology as a field of knowledge, academic discipline and professional practice in Kyrgyzstan (formerly the Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic) from 1966 to 2003, focusing on the late and post-socialist project to transform sociology from a heteronomous to autonomous field of knowledge and practice. It draws especially on the sociology of knowledge and science to explore the localised processes through which social scientific knowledge and political power have been co-constituted on the imperial periphery. Through a comparative case study of sociology in Kyrgyzstani universities, as well as smaller case studies of ‘public science’ in the national press, it reveals how sociologists have negotiated a fundamental tension in the institutionalisation project—the separation of the production of sociological knowledge from the logic of political power, on the one hand, and their simultaneous association, on the other—to establish both scientific legitimacy and social relevance for sociology in the republic. The types of sociology that emerge from this negotiation—the positivist, applied-professional model and the post-positivist liberal-critical model—are interpreted not as inevitable consequences of the Soviet collapse, but rather the product of decisions made by sociologists within particular intellectual and structural constraints and through the lens of partial bodies of theoretical knowledge. The ascendance of positivist and empiricist sociology in the post-Soviet period is explained as a deliberate, if often extremely uncritical, attempt to reorganise the relationship between power and knowledge in Kyrgyzstani society and to democratise the latter. Finally, the dissertation demonstrates that academic debates about the possibility of scientific truth assume deep personal and political significance when conducted in the context of pronounced social fragmentation and inequality, specifically, in the contexts of authoritarianism and neo­ colonialism. Keywords: sociology of social science, sociology of knowledge, power/knowledge, Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, boundary-work 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract..........................................................................................................................2 Table of contents ........................................................................................................... 3 Abbreviations, acronyms and commonly used terms ................................................. 6 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................7 Map of Central Asia ......................................................................................................9 Part 1—Context theory and method Introduction General introduction ........................................................................................ 10 Truth, power and social science through the lens of Soviet sociology......... 11 Overview of the dissertation............................................................................13 1—Understanding sociology as an academic and political phenomenon The politics of sociology in newly independent societies ............................. 16 Sociology, knowledge and power in Kyrgyzstan...........................................17 The problem with no name ..............................................................................20 2—Theory and method: the critical sociology of scientific knowledge Theoretical framework..................................................................................... 27 The sociology of knowledge............................................................................33 The sociology of social science.......................................................................38 Boundary-work and the construction of scientific knowledge ......................44 Methodology: the ethnographic case study approach.....................................50 Reflections on power and knowledge in the field ...........................................56 Part 2—The historical legacies 3—Russian and Soviet sociology: the roots of academic dependency The rise and fall of Russian sociology, 1916-36............................................ 61 Social science in Soviet Kirgizia, 1917-54.................................................... 64 The colonial logic of Soviet social science in Central Asia ........................... 69 Contextualising the emergence of sociology in Kirgizia................................79 4—First-generation sociology in Kirgizia, 1966-73 Founding narratives ..........................................................................................84 Tabaldiev and the ‘first group of students willing to be sociologists’ ...........87 The extra-disciplinary status of sociological research....................................89 Studies in industrial sociology .........................................................................91 Research on national relations in Kirgizia .......................................................97 The dissolution of the first sociological laboratory........................................ 102 3 5—The new sociology and perestroika on the Soviet periphery, 1983-91 Sociology during perestroika and the perestroika of sociology......................108 Sociology at the Frunze Polytechnic Institute................................................. 115 Sociology and social planning..........................................................................121 From the national question to national sociology ............................................123 The challenge to generalised Soviet sociology in Kirgizia............................. 127 Kirgizstan’s second-generation sociology into independence ........................129 Part 3—Boundary-work and contingency in Kyrgyzstani sociology (case studies) 6—One sociology or many? The localisation of sociology in Kyrgyzstan The impact of independence on sociology ....................................................... 132 National sociology in Kyrgyzstan: myth or reality?........................................141 Reintroducing the local: the importance of departmental conditions ............ 148 Introduction to the case studies .........................................................................151 7—An applied profession for social administration: sociology at the Bishkek Humanitarian University Institutional context ...........................................................................................158 Conceptualisation of sociology.........................................................................165 Boundary-work and contingency in sociology at BHU................................. 185 8—Between scholarship and service: sociology at the American University-Central Asia Institutional context ...........................................................................................190 Conceptualisation of sociology.........................................................................201 Boundary-work and contingency in sociology at AUCA..............................230 9—Privatisation, political ratings and public science: sociological boundary-work in the mass media Sociology in the national press.........................................................................234 Public opinion: the ‘democratic’ face of Kyrgyzstani sociology................... 237 From privatisation toprikhvatizatsiia: sociology confronts the state............246 Political ratings in Kyrgyzstan: real sociology and ‘pseudo-sociology’ 254 Part 4—Critical sociology of sociology: Kyrgyzstan and beyond 10—Conclusion and theoretical implications .......................................................... 277 Part 5—Back matter Appendix A: The sociologists ....................................................................................... 287 Appendix B: Comparative conceptualisations of sociology: Bishkek Humanitarian University and American University-Central Asia ..........................293 Appendix C: State educational standard for basic education in sociology ................ 294 Appendix D: Attestation scheme for educational institutions .................................... 301 4 Appendix E: Newspapers/journals
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