1 Introduction.- 2 Theorising the economic transformation.- 3 The rise of the rentier class in the post-Soviet space.- 4 Rentier capitalism in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.- 5 Social movements and activism in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.- 6 Alternative economic imaginaries in Central Asia.- 7 Conclusion: The end of the road for rentiership?.

This book explains and evaluates today’s economic, political, social and ecological crises through the lens of rentier capitalism and countermovements in Central Asia. Over the last three decades the rich and powerful have increased their wealth and political power to the detriment of social and environmental well-being. But their activities have not gone unchecked. Grassroots activism has resisted the harmful and damaging effects of the neoliberal commodification of things.

Providing a much-needed theorisation of the moral economy and politics of rent, this book offers in-depth case studies on finance, real estate and natural resources in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The authors show the mechanisms of rent extraction, their moral justifications and legitimacy, and social struggles against them.

This book highlights the importance of class relations, state-countermovement interactions and global capitalism in understanding social and economic dynamics in Central Asia.It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in political economy, development studies, sociology, politics and international relations.

Balihar Sanghera is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent.

Elmira Satybaldieva is a Senior Research Fellow at the Conflict Analysis Research Centre, University of Kent.

“This excellent but heart-breaking book describes the tragedy wrought by post-Soviet neoliberal remaking of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Following the advice of US officials, the World Bank and IMF to endow local kleptocracies with privatized public assets, these countries found themselves pressured to act more on behalf of foreign financial institutions and corporations than for their own populations. Their new “rule of law” has turned out to be the rule of investment-dispute courts over-ruling public attempts to charge foreign investors for the ecological and social damages they cause. Domestically, the “free market” law of “property rights” supports creditor privileges leaving an expropriated population in its wake as smallholders are driven into debt, forfeit their homes and are marginalized.” (Professor Michael Hudson, University of Missouri)

“This is a bravely-told analysis of parasitic rentier capitalism in an over-looked part of the global economy. It was unleashed by the folly of the west's shock therapy doctrine imposed on the region in the 1990s. Today's venal oligarchy are the offspring of neoliberal dogma.” (Professor Guy Standing, SOAS, University of London)

“Combining rich empirics with sharp theoretical insights, Sanghera and Satybaldieva reveal how the neoliberalism has facilitated the expansion of wealth of the rentier class at the expense of the poor in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This trenchant analysis is a must read for anyone interested in the nature and trajectories of contemporary capitalism and its unfolding in Central Asia.” (Professor Susanne Soederberg, Queen’s University)

“In this truly exceptional book, Balihar Sanghera and Elmira Satybaldieva have subjected the forms taken by capitalist social relations in post-Soviet Central Asia – especially, the extraction of rent and unearned income – to rigorous analysis. They bring to life the theoretical categories of “moral economy”, and illustrate the countermovements confronting capital, through interviews with people whose relationships with each other are being transformed: lenders and borrowers, city officials and informal settlement dwellers, trade unionists and community activists. This is a brilliant and insightful contrast to the weight of research that views Central Asia through the lens of the geopolitics of elsewhere.” (Professor Simon Pirani, University of Durham)

Provides a critical comparative analysis of neoliberal policies in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Details the emergence of new class relations and countermovements Illuminates in all its depth rentierism and its effects on society, politics and the environment Contains findings based on over 200 qualitative interviews and extensive ethnographic observations

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