Civil Society in Central Asia [explainer clip]

What makes democracy work? The amount of literature written in an attempt to answer this question is vast. Many conclude that there is no way of finding a single answer, but the common perception is that civil society is an integral part of a functional democracy. Thus, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international community encouraged countries in Central Asia to develop strong, representative, and inclusive civil society to smooth the transition from totalitarian to democratic regimes.  However, three decades later, civil society in Central Asia did not form itself as expected. Every country in...

Volunteering opportunity with Central Asia Solidarity Groups

Deadline: January 25th, 2020 Hosting organization: Central Asia Solidarity Groups/Centralasiengrupperna Vacancy: 2 volunteering positions Start date: March (flexible) Duration: 12 months Volunteering opportunity with Central Asia Solidarity Groups The following vacancies are available at the Swedish organization Central Asia Solidarity Groups, through the European Solidarity Project funded by Erasmus+ and managed by the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society. Candidates, who are interested in these volunteering positions must register at European Solidarity Corps portal and submit their CV together with one page letter of motivation no later than January 25st, 2020. Central Asia Solidarity Groups’ OID is E10064468....

Coming home from Kyrgyzstan – three months later

It has now almost been three months since me and Emma arrived back in Sweden, after spending four months in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Previously when I’ve spent some time abroad, I’ve marvelled at the fact that your life just goes back to normal so quickly; you meet up with old friends, walk the same streets as you’ve always walked before, go back to work or school – and all of a sudden it’s like you forget that you’ve just spent the last four or six months in a foreign country – with new friends and different streets – and that...

Part 2 on Democratization in Kyrgyzstan: Novi Ritm’s Contribution to Democratization of Kyrgyzstan

How can Novi Ritm be seen as contributing to the democratization process of Kyrgyzstan? In the last blog post, Perspectives on Democracy, I offered different conceptions of democracy and how the Central Asia Solidarity Groups (hereby abbreviated CAG) in particular understands the concepts of “democracy” and “democratization”. In this second and last blog post in the mini series, we will delve deeper into what actions CAG’s understanding of democracy and democratization leads them to take in Central Asia by analyzing how one of their main partners, the youth organization Novi Ritm in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, can be said to contribute...