Parasitic intimacies : life, love, and labor in post-socialist Central Asia
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation considers how the lives and labors of a diverse and disparate set of Central Asian women might help us reimagine economic possibilities and socio-political futures in a time of precarious employment and diminished social security. Based on over two years of research in Kyrgyzstan and across its borders, it narrates the exploits and travails of entrepreneurial traders traveling to China and Turkey, rural migrants and undocumented women in the sex trade, and marginalized drug addicts as they seek care from service providers and public health programs. These diverse groups were once criminalized as "social parasites" in the Soviet Union. Today, despite the residues of stigma, their activities are the mainspring of livelihoods. By bringing together both economic and medical discourses, my dissertation analyzes how the figure of the "parasite"—those classes of people who are not viewed as productive members of society—carries gendered and racial connotations. It argues that so-called "unproductive" activities and relations of dependence are, in fact, forms of generative, relational work that shape local imaginaries of care, as well as transnational flows of people, goods, and wealth.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2021 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Zhou, Grace Haige |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Yanagisako, Sylvia Junko, 1945- |
| Thesis advisor | Yanagisako, Sylvia Junko, 1945- |
| Thesis advisor | Ferguson, James, 1959- |
| Thesis advisor | Grant, Bruce, 1964- |
| Thesis advisor | Reeves, Madeleine |
| Thesis advisor | Thiranagama, Sharika |
| Degree committee member | Ferguson, James, 1959- |
| Degree committee member | Grant, Bruce, 1964- |
| Degree committee member | Reeves, Madeleine |
| Degree committee member | Thiranagama, Sharika |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Anthropology |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Grace H. Zhou. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Anthropology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/tn850ss1287 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by Grace Haige Zhou
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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