“A Proper House, Not a Barn”: House Biographies and Societal Change in Urban Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

AbstractIn Kyrgyzstan, scholars disagree about the outcomes of the Tulip Revolution of 2005: while some argue that the revolution has not resulted in noteworthy changes in the country, others see it as the beginning of major political change. To trace the materiality of such change it is necessary to look at the micro-level of a society, as this chapter does by focusing on the house as the unit of analysis for a close study of change. It examines the gradual transformation of dwellings in Ak Jar, an illegal squatter settlement on the northern edge of Kyrgyztan’s capital city Bishkek. The immediate aftermath of the Tulip Revolution saw the emergence of numerous illegal squatter settlements on the outer fringes of the city. Ak Jar, the largest of these, has some 15,000 inhabitants who arrived in Bishkek as internal migrants in search of employment. The dwellings in Ak Jar have changed over the course of time: most began as small mud shacks, and changed when a family generated enough money to improve and expand them. The development of these houses was central for the gradual official recognition of the illegal settlements that emerged in post-revolutionary Kyrgyzstan. House biographies are therefore intrinsically tied to wider developments in Kyrgyz society and throw new light on the ruptures, power struggles, and consolidation of power relations after the Tulip Revolution.