Abstract
Monotowns, urban settlements whose economies are dominated by a single enterprise or indus- try, were key elements of the Soviet Union’s project of achieving socio-technological progress through industrialization and urbanization – and flagships of socialist modernity. After the dis- solution of the Soviet Union, these towns have become known to an international public as prob- lematic entities, characterized by crumbling infrastructures, socioeconomic precarity and envi- ronmental pollution. Monotowns’ current challenges are commonly regarded in the media and academic studies as rooted in the Soviet past, with its legacy of urban and industrial misdevel- opment. Accordingly, the solutions proposed to solve the ‘monotown problem’ aim at overcom- ing this legacy by subscribing to certain types of (‘Western’) models of urbanization and eco- nomic development. In this paper, I challenge the specific teleology implicated by these devel- opment models by drawing attention to alternative framings of monotowns’ trajectories, par- ticularly those arising from the lived experience of local residents. Using the case of the mono- town Tekeli in Kazakhstan, where improvements in the social, economic and environmental spheres have recently been taking place, I question widespread narratives of failure and misfor- tune and, thus, aim to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of postindustrialization and urbanization processes in Central Asia.
Rohner, Tabea