Anthropogenic Environments in the Future Tense: Loss, Change and Hope in Post-Soviet Industrial Landscapes

Introduction

Driving from the airport towards the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan will carry the passenger past the new EXPO building with its permanent exhibition on Kazakhstan’s bright future of smart green energy, while in the distance the skyscraper silhouette of the ultra-modern city centre is clouded in smog. In Kazakhstan, as elsewhere in Central Asia, the future of the country’s industrial heritage polarizes the public.

Historical Context

In the 20th century, Central Asia was transformed into a hub of rapid industrialization. However, mining and industrial towns experienced a critical time with collapsing industries and infrastructure during the 1990s. This not only left people economically vulnerable but touched at the very core of local identity in a socio-cultural setting where urbanity epitomizes civilization, modernity, culturedness, and well-being.

Environmental Concerns

Simultaneously, the environmental costs of resource extraction and industrial production became visible. Calls for a global shift towards reducing environmental impact also resonate in post-socialist countries, often in a top-down manner. The voices of those living in and with these places are rarely heard.

Questions of Justice and Nostalgia

Juxtaposing different experiences raises questions of environmental justice, future livelihoods, and feelings of nostalgia for different pasts.

Project Overview: ANTHEFT

This is where ANTHEFT comes in. ANTHEFT pursues three objectives at the interface of work and environment in polluted landscapes:

1. Identify temporalities, affects, future(s), and memory.
2. Describe discursive strategies by which local communities express and make sense of their socio-economic and environmental histories and identities.
3. Analyze local understandings and moralities of environmental damage, progress, good living, and place-making.

ANTHEFT is a ground-breaking project that proposes to venture into a long durée, translocal research on Central Asian industrial work and environment from the late 18th century to the present, incorporating disparate memories, perspectives, and experiences.