Yale University doctoral candidate Ainur Begim, supervised by Dr. Douglas Rogers, will undertake research on the practices and technologies of financial traders in Kazakhstan's burgeoning financial sphere. This project -- informed by recent developments in science and technology studies, social studies of finance, postsocialist studies, and the anthropology of the state -- examines traders' ambitions, goals, and routines in Kazakhstan, where the state plays an active role in promoting the development of financial markets. Ethnographic data will be collected through a variety of methods, including participant observation, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, life and technology histories, focus groups, targeted archival research, and newspaper analysis. These data will be analyzed with the goal of testing four major hypotheses concerning the sustainability of financial markets; the role of information technology in their development; the relevance of Kazakhstan's recent political developments; and the values and culture of Kazakhstan's traders.
This study will be among the first to approach emerging financial markets ethnographically in the Central Asian context. It will shed light on the relevance of the different political experiences for contemporary financial practices as well as offer new insights into the nature and role of the state in the development of financial markets. This project presents a unique opportunity to question taken-for-granted understandings of markets as sites for calculating economic actors and high technologies devoid of the state. Through detailed descriptions of the ways in which economic and political institutions are organized and interlinked, the proposed study will not only supplement economic analyses of interest rates, inflation, and credit but enable a richer and deeper understanding of finance and suggest ways for better regulation of financial flows.
This project gathered ethnographic data in support of a doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Yale University. The goal of the research was to examine financial practices and technologies in Kazakhstan’s burgeoning financial sphere and test four major hypotheses concerning (1) the role of the state in jumpstarting financial markets and ensuring their sustainability; (2) the relevance of the socialist experience to contemporary financial practices; (3) the role of information technology in the development of financial markets; and (4) the values and culture of Kazakhstan’s traders. Through extensive participation observation in three different firms, over hundred interviews, as well as life and technology histories, focus groups, newspaper and data analysis, and archival work, the researcher confirmed the main hypothesis that financial markets in top-down political regimes are qualitatively different from Western financial markets: the state, not the abstract notion of the market, is seen as the highest authority. This arrangement mediates the ways in which financial actors relate to one another, the market, and the state, producing novel understandings of risk, profit, and competition. Intellectual Merit: this study is among the first to approach emerging financial markets ethnographically, exploring and then theorizing the effects of state intervention in the domain traditionally seen as lying outside of state jurisdiction and expertise. By examining Kazakhstan’s financial practices, this research project questions taken-for-granted understandings of markets as sites for calculating economic actors and high technologies devoid of the state and examines how neoliberal ideals of efficient financial markets are appropriated, subverted, and realized in emerging economies. This research contributes to domains of knowledge related to science and technology studies, social studies of finance, postsocialist studies, and the anthropology of the state. Broader Impact: Through "thick description" of the ways in which economic and political institutions are organized and interlinked, this study not only supplements economic analyses of interest rates, inflation, and credit but also enables a richer and deeper understanding of finance and suggest ways for better regulation of financial flows. By engaging with political economy, this project can contribute to the important task of carving out a space for a rigorous ethnography-based analysis of state ideologies and market practices.
