Researching in the Former Soviet Union: Stories from the Field

169 Pages·2022·14.292 MB·English

by  Jasmin Dall’Agnola, Allyson Edwards, Marnie Howlett

Researching in the Former
Soviet Union
Written for early-career scholars still in the planning stages of their research, this book
explores some of the challenges researchers face when conducting fieldwork in the for-
mer Soviet region. It addresses key questions, including: What difficulties do scholars,
especially females, encounter when researching in the region? How does an early-career
scholars’ positionality – especially their nationality, ethnicity, and sexuality – contribute
to their experiences of inclusion, exclusion, and access while conducting fieldwork?
How do early-career scholars navigate issues of personal safety in the field? How do
junior academics successfully conduct high-risk research? The book includes contrib-
utors from both the region and Western countries, paying particular attention to the
ways researchers’ subjectivities shape how they are received in the region, which, in
turn, influence how they write about and disseminate their research. The book also
explores ways to continue research away from the field through the use of digital meth-
ods when physical access is not possible.
Jasmin Dall’Agnola is an Associated Research Fellow at the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Academy in Bishkek. Her research centers on
the relationship between gender, governance, and technology in post-Soviet Central
Asia. She has been awarded a prestigious two-year, full-time Postdoc. Mobility Fel-
lowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, to explore the implications of
the COVID-19 pandemic on smart city technologies in Central Asia. In her role as
founder and acting chair of the Eurasian, East and Central European Studies Women
Academics Forum (EECES WAF), Jasmin is involved in various collaborative research
and networking endeavors to address gender disparity in academia.
Allyson Edwards research examines Militarism in Post-Soviet Russia, more specifi-
cally, the mechanisms behind latent militarization between 1990 and 2000. She is cur-
rently a lecturer in Global History at Bath Spa University and plays a wider role in
the academic community as Vice-Chair of the EECES WAF. She specializes in topics
related to militarism, memory, education, and parades in the Russian/Eurasian space.
Marnie Howlett is a Departmental Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Politics
and International Relations at the University of Oxford. She has held Fellowships sup-
ported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC),
the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, and the John Fell Fund. Marnie was
a Deputy Editor for Millennium: Journal of International Studies, vol. 48 and currently
sits on the editorial board for Qualitative Research. Her research centers on the inter-
section of nationalism, geopolitics, and cartography within the former Soviet Union,
particularly Ukraine.
BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East
European Studies
Series editors:
sociology and anthropology: Judith Pallot (Chair), University of Oxford
economics and business: Richard Connolly, University of Birmingham
media and cultural studies: Birgit Beumers, University of Aberystwyth
politics and international relations: Andrew Wilson, School of Slavonic and
East European Studies, University College London
history: Matt Rendle, University of Exeter
This series is published on behalf of BASEES (the British Association
for Slavonic and East European Studies). The series comprises original,
high-quality, research-level work by both new and established scholars on
all aspects of Russian, Soviet, post-Soviet and East European Studies in
humanities and social science subjects.
147 Projecting Russia in a Mediatized World
Recursive Nationhood
Stephen Hutchings
148 Russia’s Regional Museums
Representing and Misrepresenting Knowledge about Nature, History
and Society
Sofia Gavrilova
149 Russian Nationalism
Imaginaries, Doctrines, and Political Battlefields
Marlene Laruelle
150 Researching in the Former Soviet Union
Stories from the Field
Edited by Jasmin Dall’Agnola, Allyson Edwards and Marnie Howlett
For a full list of available titles please visit: https://www.routledge.com/
BASEES-Routledge-Series-on-Russian-and-East-European-Studies/book-
series/BASEES
Researching in the Former
Soviet Union
Stories from the Field
Edited by
Jasmin Dall’Agnola, Allyson Edwards,
and Marnie Howlett
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Jasmin Dall’Agnola, Allyson
Edwards and Marnie Howlett; individual chapters, the contributors
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-367-69993-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-69995-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-14416-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003144168
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
Preface by Hélène Thibault ix
A Note from the Editors xiv
Introduction: The Challenges of Fieldwork in Post-Soviet Societies 1
JASMIN DALL’AGNOLA
PART I
Stories from the Post-Soviet Field 17
1 Understanding and Managing One’s Own Mistrust:
The Value of Embodied Ethnography during Fieldwork in a
Contested Postwar Polity 19
ANDREA PEINHOPF
2 Doing Fieldwork (Not Quite) at Home: Reflecting on an
Expat’s Positionality in Lithuania 37
RASA KAMARAUSKAITĖ
3 A Woman of Her Word Prepared for the Worst: Researching
Drug Trafficking in Kazakhstan 53
ZHANIYA TURLUBEKOVA
PART II
Stories from the Hybrid Field 71
4 “Hanging Out” with the Boys: The Female Participant
Observer in a Male-Dominated Group 73
ABIGAIL KARAS
vi Contents
5 Balancing Diasporic Ties and Research: A Ukrainian-Canadian’s
Reflection on Fieldwork in Ukraine 91
MARNIE HOWLETT
PART III
Stories from the Digital Field 109
6 Listening and Its Limits: Reflections on Fieldwork
in/on Kyrgyzstan 111
COLLEEN WOOD
7 The Academic Lion Skin: Balancing Doctoral Research
with Motherhood 128
RUTA SKRIPTAITE
Afterword: Gaining Access to the Field 145
ALLYSON EDWARDS
Index 149
Contributors
Rasa Kamarauskaitė is a sociology PhD student at School of Slavonic
and East European Studies (UCL). Her research focuses on everyday
(in)visibilities of non-heterosexual people in Lithuania. By the means
of fieldwork, she seeks to examine the circumstances, conditions, and
practices that render Lithuanian non-heterosexual people (in)visible in
their everyday contexts. Thematically and conceptually her research is
informed by studies of public and private, body and space, sexuality,
communism and post-communism. In terms of methodology, she adheres
to the principles of grounded theory.
Abigail Karas recently completed her DPhil at the University of Oxford.
Her research looks at urban space, local identity, and municipal politics.
Her doctoral thesis focused on the different uses of the city’s rooftop (and
attic) spaces and related these to social development, urban planning,
civic activism, and the local imaginary in St Petersburg.
Andrea Peinhopf holds a PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from the
School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College
London. Her PhD thesis, which was funded by the UK’s Economic and
Social Research Council (ESRC), explored the impact of violence and
unresolved conflict on social relations in the contested state of Abkhazia,
where she conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork. The results of
her research have been published in Ethnopolitics, Nationalities Papers,
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies and The Global
Encyclopedia of Informality. In 2018, Andrea was a recipient of the Best
Doctoral Paper Award by the Association for the Study of Nationalities
(ASN). She is currently an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the
Department of Politics at the University of York, where she works on
a project exploring the social impact of international isolation in the
context of contested statehood.
Ruta Skriptaite is a doctoral researcher in the School of Politics and
International Relations at the University of Nottingham. Her PhD research
explores the affinity between masculinities and political image-making
viii Contributors
in the post-Soviet space, by providing a comparative analysis of the
Belarusian president Aliaksandr Lukashenka, recently resigned Kazakh
president Nursultan Nazarbayev, and deceased Turkmen president
Saparmurat Niyazov-Turkmenbashi. Prior to starting her PhD research,
Ruta completed an MA in Politics, Security and Integration at the
School of Slavonic and East European Studies (UCL) and a BA (Hons) in
International Relations at the University of Essex.
Hélène Thibault holds a PhD in Political Science from the University
of Ottawa and is Assistant Professor at the faculty of Sciences and
Humanities at Nazarbayev University since 2016. She specializes in
ethnography, religion, secularism, and the Soviet legacy. Her current
projects also look at gender issues, marriage, sexuality, and polygyny in
Central Asia. She is also the co-director of the Central Asia hub of the
Political Economy of Education Network (PEER), a transnational three-
year project funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
Zhaniya Turlubekova holds a dual doctorate degree from Utrecht University
and Eötvös Loránd University (Summa Cum Laude) in Cultural and
Global Criminology. Her PhD research was awarded a prestigious four-
year full-time Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Scholarship. She received
a bachelor’s degree in law from Kostanay State University and a master’s
degree in political science and international relations from Nazarbayev
University. Apart from her academic experience, she has accomplished
several internships and gained practical legal and analytical experience
with a number of agencies at national and international levels.
Colleen Wood is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at
Columbia University. Her research on civic identity and political participation
in Central Asia is supported by the National Science Foundation and
the Harriman Institute. Prior to graduate studies, she earned a BS from
Georgetown University and served as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years
in Kyrgyzstan.
Preface
Hélène Thibault
Nazarbayev University
This edited volume sheds light on the realities and challenges of fieldwork
for early-career female researchers working in the former USSR. This book
will be useful for students and supervisors alike to think about some of
the perils scholars can be exposed to when conducting fieldwork and help
in developing methodological strategies in low- to high-risk environments.
This preface is an opportunity for me to discuss the particularities of the
former Soviet space as a research ground as well as the virtue and impor-
tance of reflexivity and positionality.
When it comes to research environments, every country, region, or com-
munity, has its own peculiarities and set of challenges. The former USSR
is a very diverse territory, and some regions represent accessible, unregi-
mented research spaces whereas others are characterized by authoritarian
environments which limit informants’ and researchers’ freedom. It affects
research even if it is conducted online as Ruta Skriptaite’s experience
reveals since some of her Turkmen informants cannot escape electronic
surveillance. In this book, the cases of Lithuania and Abkhazia offer very
contrasting pictures; the former is a peaceful country and member of the
European Union, while the latter is an unrecognized de facto state that
has been in limbo since the end of the civil war in Georgia in 1993 (see
Andrea Peinhopf’s story in this volume). Yet despite all their differences,
countries of the region bear some similarities because of their shared his-
torical path.
The former Soviet space is idiosyncratic because of the double coloni-
zation experience: Russian and Soviet. And the USSR was no ordinary
empire. As a country, the Soviet Union was exceptional in many respects,
because of its size, repressive politics, totalizing communist ideology, soci-
oeconomic achievements, and influence on the world scene. Unlike some
other colonial powers, the Soviet power had a double objective: economic
extraction coupled with the complete transformation of the social and polit-
ical order. Sociopolitical transformation under the Soviet regime is undeni-
able but the extent to which people were influenced by communist values or
an authoritarian mindset is still subjected to intense debate. The legacy of
Soviet rule is significant and continues to impact socioeconomic dynamics