1st Edition

Civic Activism in Authoritarian Space Urban Development Interventions in Kazakhstan

By Sara O’Connor Copyright 2025
192 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

168 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

192 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book is about citizenship under globalized governance, and how people in urban spaces manoeuvre overlapping authorities to advance their common interests. It shows how citizens can affect change in the policy implementation process by creating spaces and opportunities for political participation, while at the same time staying “safe” and free from surveillance in settings of political... Read more

List of Tables

Acknowledgements                                                                                       

INTRODUCTION                                                                                                     

CHAPTER 1:  Kazakhstan’s Exploding Third Sector: The Rise of Homegrown Civic Leadership

CHAPTER 2: Planning Cities to Rule States: Staking Claims to Place and Process    

CHAPTER 3: Green Space Preservation in the Shadow of Spectacle: Activism in Development      in Astana                                                                   

CHAPTER 4: Scaffolding Democratic Processes in Urban Development: Emerging Urban Political Participation in Almaty                                                              

CHAPTER 5: Manifest Urbanity: Planning Urban Dreamscapes in Southern Kazakhstan 

CHAPTER 6: Civic Interventions in City Planning: Political Participation Reconsidered    

CONCLUSION                                                                                                        

APPENDIX A                                                                                                                       

APPENDIX B            

Biography

Sara O’Connor is the Associate Director of the Geo-SpACE Lab with California State University, Long Beach, and a Lecturer in the Department of Geography.