Каролина Клюшевска. Мастер - класс для студентов программы

 Karolina Kluczewska is a PhD student and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews; a research affiliate at the Tajik National University and a visiting researcher at HSE in Moscow. Her research concerns development aid in contemporary Central Asia, with a focus on Tajikistan. Previously she has worked as a project manager in the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Tajikistan, and a researcher for the the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia-Tajikistan. 

On November 24, she will a lecture for students of 'Populatioan and Development' and 'Political Analysis and Public Policy' programmes.
Place: Myasnitskaya 11, room 431
Time:  3 p.m. 

Proposed topics:

1. Development aid in Central Asia: International organisations, imported norms and contestation in Tajikistan

Tajikistan is one of many post-Soviet countries which drew attention of international donors, following complex political and economic transformation processes which the country experienced throughout the 1990s. Nowadays, foreign aid, mostly from American and European donors, is present in almost every aspect of social, economic and political life in Tajikistan - tourism, agriculture, business, education etc. In the rhetoric accompanying donors-driven development, Tajikistan is portrayed as the ‘backward’ part, ‘in transition’ to western progressive modernity. However, do the donors’ ideas of social inclusion and civil liberties always fit into the local normative order? And if they do not fully fit - how are they contested? Are they negotiated and adapted to local realities? And who are the actors participating in these processes? In this presentation, two very different components of the ‘socialisation package’ of international donors in Tajikistan will be discussed: women and LGBT rights.

2. Development aid in Central Asia: Perceptions of international organisations in Tajikistan among their employees, civil society organisations and youth

Soon after the breakdown of the Soviet Union in 1991, a civil war started in Tajikistan (1992-97). This was also the period when Tajikistan was integrated into the development aid - late, in comparison to African and Latin American colleagues. In the mid-1990s, a number of international organisations arrived to the country to distribute humanitarian assistance and assist in conflict resolution and stabilisation - including the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and many others. Twenty years after the end of the civil war, there are still over thirty international organisations, international financial institutions and international non-governmental organisations operating in Tajikistan. Given that development aid covers nearly all fields of social, economic, financial, security and military life of the country, it is surprising how little attention has been paid to interactions of international organisations with the local society. In the rhetoric of international organisations, the aid-receiving society is portrayed as ‘beneficiaries’ - passive recipients who are thankful for development assistance. But does this narrative correspond to the way how the society sees international organisations? This presentation explores perceptions of international organisations in Tajikistan among their own employees; local civil society organisations, which depend on funding from abroad; and a new generation of young Tajikistanis, who grew up surrounded by development assistance 

3. NGOs and donors: The rise and fall of civic activism in Tajikistan

Tajikistan became an independent country in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since its early days, the country has been undergoing a political and economic transformation, aggravated by a civil war. It also became the recipient of foreign aid from donors, mainly western countries. In this context, in the-1990s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) flourished in Tajikistan. In the absence of a fully-functioning state, NGOs used to provide the population with services in nearly all fields of life. The NGO sector became a new space for civic activism – it was the only form through which citizens could be involved in social and political matters of the country. For young activists, NGOs became a constructive mean to change the world around. This presentation touches upon a complex relationship between local NGOs and foreign donors. It describes how foreign donors first allowed the NGOs in Tajikistan to flourish, and later contributed to their decline.

.4.‘Radicalising’ labour migrants: International Organisations and production of knowledge on migration in Central Asia

Since the mid-1990s, International Organisations have been more and more conducting field research, as a mean to design development projects taking into account local complexities and improve project implementation through use of local solutions. Local knowledge became new panacea for problems in aid-receiving countries. International Organisations working in Central Asia did not stay behind in this matter. This presentation engages critically with knowledge produced in the region, by tracing the process of production of a research on migrants’ vulnerabilities and integration needs in Central Asia which was released by IOM in 2016. Looking at how the research was produced, the following questions are asked: who and how produces knowledge; what meaning knowledge has for different actors; if, and if so, how, knowledge is adapted to fit international settings; and what is the ultimate aim of using it. The presentation also highlights how by producing knowledge International Organisations position themselves towards local governments, other International Organisations and donor agencies.