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This paper examines contemporary Chinese-Kazakhstani political economic ties from the perspective of trade. In particular, it traces the evolution of this relationship before and after the critical juncture of 2013, when the Silk Road Economic Belt was announced in Astana, ushering the era of the Belt and Road Initiative. This paper advances three arguments. First and foremost, Kazakhstan has avoided developing a dependency on the Chinese economy. Its trade autonomy has been maintained before and after the Belt and Road Initiative was launched in 2013, as Kazakhstan benefited from the development of markets alternative to China. Secondly, trade between Kazakhstan and China was mostly focused on natural resources during the immediate pre-BRI years, but it has gradually shifted to a more balanced mix, encompassing intermediate goods, raw materials, and consumer goods. Thirdly, such diversification is the product of an increasingly sophisticated, complex value chain interconnecting Kazakhstan and the rest of the world, including but not limited to China. The growing complexity of these production networks, while certainly beneficial to Chinese firms, has also contributed to Kazakhstan's multi-vector geopolitical strategy. In this environment, Kazakhstan demonstrates the capability to weather the ongoing deceleration of China's economy, as the Central Asian country pursues the diversification of its own economy and external economic ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the closure of prisons impact local communities where the prison is sited? The paper compares three prison closures in northern and central Kazakhstan through field observations, interviews, and focus groups at the sites. We find that respondents unanimously opposed closure by appealing to the apparent good performance of the prison. Beyond the economic loss incurred by closure, respondents reported a loss of communal identity, as well as prestige connected to the presence of the military at the colony. The paper analyzes these responses by examining the logics by which the prisons came to be opened in the Soviet period as well as investigating how the relationship between punishment, economy, and society in Kazakhstan has changed since that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong relationship between regional integration and economic performance. This paper investigates the impact of regional integration on macroeconomic indicators in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – a trade block created by the former Soviet republics in 2014. This study compares two types of regional collaboration strategies: first, unilateral trade liberalization with the one-sided opening of market access that does not imply any mutual concessions, and second, reciprocal regional liberalization evaluated as the degree of regional economic integration between the countries. We apply a random effect panel data analysis with the dataset over 25 years since 1995 covering five countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia). We find that, under the current stage, the EAEU positively affects trade flows, negatively affects the level of employment, and has no impact on other economic performance indicators. We also conclude that despite the declared level of economic integration – customs union – Eurasian block functions mainly as a free trade area facilitating mutual trade, which is different from the broader objectives that regional integration aims to achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes conflict resolution strategies in public procurement in two transition economies, Russia and Kazakhstan, based on a supplier survey. The results show that 25% of suppliers in Kazakhstan and 32% of suppliers in Russia said preferred to resolve all public procurement conflicts through negotiations with the procurer without involving a third party represented by the regulator and/or the judicial system. The findings also revealed that Russian suppliers, potentially affiliated with procurers, are less likely to encounter conflict situations. The attitude to the practice of "predetermined choice," when the procurer selects a supplier before the formal procurement procedure, was used as an indirect indicator of such affiliation. In addition, the empirical analysis shows that, in both countries, suppliers who are not inclined to trust the court and indicate high costs of participation in litigation are more likely to use the strategy of direct negotiations to resolve procurement conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In social networks research, geographical distance between places of residence partially explains patterns of friendship ties in semi-isolated communities like classrooms or schools. For example, individuals that live close to one another are more likely to be friends than chance alone predicts. Explaining this pattern, researchers often argue that distance approximates meeting opportunities: when individuals live nearby, they are more likely to meet, both by chance and deliberately. This paper discusses the effect of distance in post-Soviet urban space and argues that, at least in this context, shared access to public transit explains the structure of social relationships better than geographical distance. I model the pattern of friendship ties among a cohort of 145 high-school students considering the distances between residential locations and the available public transit. Results suggest that students that live along the same bus routes are more likely to be friends than those who just live close to one another. I conclude with a discussion about how research in the post-Soviet region can enrich debates about the association between the social and spatial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adapts and estimates the DSGE model of Medina and Soto (2007) in the context of Kazakhstani economy. The main goal of the paper is to contribute to the scarce macroeconomic modelling literature on Kazakhstan and analyse the structure of the Kazakhstani economy using the DSGE framework. Overall, we find that the oil price shock is key in explaining the variance of virtually all the variables of interest – in particular, it accounts for more than 40% of variance in real exchange rate over the long-term horizon. Furthermore, while the oil price and commodity (oil) production shocks contributed positively to the country's GDP growth in real terms before the Great Recession, their effects have been primarily negative during the two major economic crises of 2007 and 2015, and the fiscal policy has had mixed success in counteracting them. Lastly, the counterfactual exercises show that the choice to adopt the floating exchange rate policy in 2015 has prevented a larger output slump in the short-term at the cost of stronger currency depreciation, and that countercyclical fiscal rules would have greatly mitigated the immediate negative impact of the 2007–08 and 2015 crises, in addition to making real output more stable overall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses publications in the periodic press about the tribal composition, ethnographic features, traditions and other features of the Kazakh people in the "Turkestan collection." A textual analysis of research papers on the culture of the Kazakh people of the early twentieth century is given. The historical and cultural data on the Kazakhstan and Central Asia peoples in the "Turkestan collection" are critically evaluated by comparing them with studies conducted in Soviet times. Historical information about how the revolution in Russia in February 1917 affected the lifestyle of the Turkestan peoples is attached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2022, a massive power blackout hit Central Asia, and especially the southern region of Kazakhstan after months of a huge rise in electricity consumption in the country and a few days after deadly demonstrations repressed by law enforcement. According to the Kazakhstani authorities, this huge power outage was due to cryptocurrency mining, an energy-intensive digital industry, highly developed within the country. This article aims to analyse and understand the geopolitical dynamics behind the fast and huge-scale development of the activity in Kazakhstan. The paper explores the geography of mining to and within the country, and relates it to the double territory's divide, both climatic and energetic. Then, it analyses the political aspect of mining focusing on actors and networks of power involved in, sometimes illegal, crypto mining in Kazakhstan. Finally, this work discusses the future of the industry regarding the new regulation since 2023 and its limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health resources are an important factor to reduce infant and child mortality. However, taking into account budget constraints, it is very difficult to increase public health resources for all regions within a country at the same time. For this reason, in this paper, we assess the effects of the regional health government expenditure assignment as well as the regional health resources available such as beds or paediatricians. We estimate a dynamic model using a system-GMM (Generalised Method of Moments) to explain infant and child-mortality in Kazakhstan during the period 2000–2018. In this period, Kazakhstan experiences a sharp decrease in infant and child mortality reaching the target values from sustainable development goals (SDG). We evaluate several variables to capture the effects of public health resources assignment, such as expenditure per capita, expenditure depending on previous year mortality rates as well as health facilities resources for children by region. Results show that an increase in health expenditure per capita in those regions with high mortality levels is particularly relevant to reduce infant mortality while health facilities are actually more important to reduce an under-5 mortality rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how exposure to critical social media content influences political engagement in authoritarian regimes, focusing on Kazakhstan. Addressing a gap in existing research, this paper examines the moderating role of state media fairness perceptions. Using representative survey data (N = 6,800), the analyses confirm that critical social media exposure is positively linked with political engagement, including state-sanctioned activities like party contact and legislative engagement. However, this effect varies significantly based on individuals’ perceptions of state media fairness. These results suggest that critical content can foster broader political participation and highlight the nuanced role of state media in shaping political behavior in closed states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores eight Kazakhstani postgraduate students' reflections of their international educational experiences in the UK after their immediate re-entry into Kazakhstan. Special focus was on their language identity development after their one-year stay in the UK. It was informed by Benson et al.'s ([2013]. Second Language Identity in Narratives of Study Abroad. London: Palgrave Macmillan) three-dimensional model of L2 identity: (a) identity-related aspects of L2 proficiency, (b) linguistic self-concept, and (c) L2-mediated aspects of personal development. The qualitative data collected from a written narrative and three subsequent rounds of individual semi-structured interviews suggest that most participants had lofty goals in the first period of their study abroad. They gradually became aware that full immersion in the host country could take a long time, and accordingly, they set concrete goals. The analysis of the data also revealed that the participants exercised their agency in displaying their development of sociopragmatic competence and a global citizenship identity, by respecting different opinions and accepting cultural differences. Nevertheless, some of them experienced racism based on their usage of English and presumed ethnicity. This study underlines the significance of introducing pedagogical interventions in all phases of study abroad to avoid student sojourners' unrealistic or impractical goals and empower their language identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the asymmetric impact of oil price fluctuations on non-performing loans (NPLs) between 2009-Q1 and 2020-Q1 for 28 banks in Kazakhstan. Dynamic panel threshold analysis revealed an initial increase of oil prices, improving creditworthiness, thereby reducing NPLs; however, after cross a certain threshold, the relationship was shown to become the opposite. This finding is in line with the Ricardian curse and resource windfall. The results suggest that optimal borrowings and lending should be actively monitored to mitigate potential liquidity problems of banks and consequently NPLs. The practical implications and policy recommendation of which are important to policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we assess the forecasting performance of three types of structural models – DSGE, BVAR with Minnesota priors, and DSGE-BVAR – in the context of a commodity-exporting small open developing economy using the data for Kazakhstan. We find that BVAR and DSGE-BVAR models generally produce point forecasts that are more accurate and less biased compared to those of DSGE in the short term, but that BVAR forecasts rapidly deteriorate in quality as the length of the forecast horizon increases. The density forecast analysis shows that when all variables are jointly considered, the models have similar prediction accuracy, and when financial sector variables are omitted, the BVAR and DSGE-BVAR models demonstrate superior performance in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework has become popular for analyzing innovation dynamics and as a systematic approach to understanding the development of new technologies. This paper aims to identify the main drivers and issues faced by EdTech startups and the entrepreneurs' innovation role within Kazakhstan's entrepreneurial ecosystem using the TIS framework, but from the role of the entrepreneur as the main actor, as opposed to systems. This study offers relevant information for new entrepreneurs in the EdTech field aiming for similar goals and potentially facing similar challenges faced by current entrepreneurs in that country. Data were collected from an online survey and semi-structured interviews using a quasi-quantitative and qualitative approach. The main research findings include identifying critical categories of risks and success indicators for Kazakhstan's EdTech startup entrepreneurs, including the ability to attract foreign and local investments, risk management, monetization strategies, developing trends, and government support. A total of 30 companies were analyzed, with findings suggesting that the quality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem reflects the level of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the lives of LGBT people in Central Asia have recently received scholarly attention, authors do not pay due attention to transgender (trans) issues. This paper explores living conditions of trans people in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as trans organizing in these countries. Semi-structured interviews with 11 trans activists were conducted in March–April 2022. According to the respondents, trans people in Central Asia face pervasive discrimination, harassment and rejection on behalf of society at large and their families. Many live in a desperate economic situation. Access to legal gender recognition aimed to align the person's legal gender with their gender identity is limited; the process requires psychiatric evaluation, medical interventions and/or going to courts. A limited number of doctors can provide transition-related medical care (hormone replacement therapy, surgeries). Trans activists self-organize to address these issues and promote trans rights in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Their areas of work include providing direct support, educating doctors, and conducting advocacy with state institutions and international actors. The political environment is hostile towards trans activism. Organizations face problems receiving official registration; in Tajikistan, state pressure on civil society is especially severe. Anti-gender movements are another obstacle for trans activists. Political instability often disrupts activists' advocacy efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how comments about Kazakhstan's 2019 and 2022 presidential elections posted on Tengrinews, one of the most commonly used news websites in Kazakhstan, reflected public sentiment toward the elections after two political flashpoints: Nazarbayev's resignation and the January 2022 protests (known as Bloody January - Qandy Qantar). In particular, the study seeks an answer to the question, "How has public sentiment changed between 9 April 2019 and 25 June 2019, as well as between 20 September 2022 and 21 November 2022?" In this paper, we applied a content analysis of all user-generated comments (n = 3,147) to identify Kazakhstani people's mood through the lenses of cues given in comments. The method demonstrates that people were most concerned about presidential nominations and candidates, election costs, protests, and social problems, and showed some hope for change. The results also demonstrate that Kazakhstanis tend to use sarcastic language and indicate the performative nature of the country's elections. Based on comparative analysis, we confirm that political flashpoints significantly affect citizens' sentiments, even regarding topics such as protests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kazakhstan is the location of some of the most important Gulag heritage from the Soviet period of domination. However, commemoration, conservation and interpretation of Gulag sites is at best partial, visitation low and the attitude to this element of Kazakh history is ambiguous. This paper considers key heritage sites and museums in Kazakhstan and a qualitative case study approach is adopted based on a combination of interviews with twenty-four key stakeholders involved in the development and operation of Gulag tourism. Direct observations and qualitative document analysis of the major national Gulag museums and other important Gulag heritage sites was also undertaken. This research questions the orthodoxy inherent in the supposed attraction of dark tourism sites and seeks to ascertain why domestic and international visitation remains low given the scale and importance of the Gulag narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Central Asia, archaeology has become a renewed focus of attention in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The infrastructure projects associated with the BRI could have a marked impact on the preservation of archaeological heritage, local understanding and use of cultural heritage. With reference to a case study centred on Kazakhstan, the paper examines the complications posed by the BRI in achieving the balance between economic development and tangible heritage preservation. While analysing weaknesses of the current legal cultural framework, it suggests that the archaeological custodianship, both local and international, should be encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the everyday lives of queer people in Kazakhstan, exploring how they express agentic power and negotiate their queer identity. This research is based on a Foucauldian-informed narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with 11 people who identify as queer and live in Kazakhstan. Findings show that the choice and ability to regulate one's visibility are crucial expressions of queer agency and resistance. This paper expands on previously published research on gender and sexuality in Central Asia by focusing beyond the issues of violation of human rights and the difficult experiences of queer people, by considering instances of acceptance, support and positive experiences alongside experiences of homophobia, transphobia and discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the rigorous reading of Social Identity Theory (SIT), this paper reconstructs the ideational sources of Kazakhstan's status seeking by identifying the Kazakhstani perception of the (un)fairness of the international system, and the nature of the existing hierarchies in world society. By using the fine-tuned ideal types of status enhancement strategies as the basis of the coding scheme, a qualitative content analysis of Kazakhstan's first president's speeches and texts reveals that Nursultan Nazarbayev adopted a social cooperation strategy. He perceived the international system as permeable, although rather unfair, but nevertheless open for improvement through multilateral cooperation. Nazarbayev accepted the negative results of comparison and responded with an adequate agency. He cultivated a special niche of foreign policy as a champion of nuclear non-proliferation, and a place for open and constructive dialogue. Therefore, Kazakhstan projected itself as a doctrineless good power, without an alignment to a particular great power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Kazakhstan today, overt dissent is not typically tolerated. However, recent large-scale citizen protests over land use and the environment have resulted in significant concessions by the government. This paper examines the discourses and slogans of protests spaces, which invoke the (inter)national legal frameworks of the United Nations, the legacy of land and bio-species conservation in the former Soviet Union, and a nationalized moral paradigm of respect for ancestral lands, cultural heritage, and sovereignty. Protesters not only call upon government leaders to respect these existing structures of authority, but also position themselves pragmatically as agents of social and political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its independence, Kazakhstan has adopted a multi-vectorism approach to balance between various great powers, especially between Russia and China. Despite extensive theorisation of such foreign policy, scholarly research has rarely investigated the topic beyond diplomatic power dynamics. Based on a systematic search of China's joint projects in Kazakhstan in the past 30 years, this paper illuminates several unexpected developmental intricacies based on Kazakhstan's multi-vectorism, its geo-strategic location, the availability of oil-driven sovereign wealth funds, and the public pressure for more responsible industrial policies: (1) China's ambition to connect to the West has unintentionally amplified Kazakhstan's multi-vector bargaining power; (2) Kazakhstan's industrial policies, supported by various financial tools backed by its oil-driven sovereign wealth funds, are integral to its multi-sector economic development and diversification of exports to include more high-value intermediate and consumer goods; and (3) shown via a case study on Kazakhstan's agricultural development, initial state-level negotiation and sub-national implementation, coupled with a mix of Sinophobic and Sinophilic sentiments, have led to a nuanced path of economic diversification. Given the authoritarian legacy in both China and Kazakhstan, empirical research to compare industry-specific development variations would be enlightening for developing economies to design optimal paths to leverage China's rising dream and capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the factors important for bilateral services trade between Kazakhstan and other countries. The subject of this article is trade in services in Kazakhstan. Our goal is to determine the factors significantly affecting trade in services in Kazakhstan. Our central hypothesis is that the Eurasian economic union (EAEU) membership was not essential for trade in services in Kazakhstan. The main result is that external trade in services is mainly influenced by factors such as the distance between Kazakhstan and partner countries and the GDP growth rate of partner countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on research into the top-down implementation of CLIL in the trilingual context of Kazakhstan, with a focus on teachers' conceptualization of integration. Kazakhstan is the first Central Asian country to introduce CLIL for using three different languages as a medium of instruction for different content subjects as part of an ambitious national language-in-education policy. With a constructivist position, the study sought to explore the reality, i.e. the conceptualization of CLIL from teachers' own perspectives through interviews and observations with five participants, working in the network of 20 state-funded and highly selective Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. Findings suggest that most of the participating teachers were not aware of the pedagogical intentions behind CLIL and understood it merely as just teaching through another language. The subject teachers, who worked in the context of demanding enquiry-based curriculum, prioritized content over language, assuming only an indirect role in facilitating students' language development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last two decades, the Bronze Age chronology of the Great Urals was revolutionized by the first large-scale radiocarbon dating programs. Since then, the chronology of the Bronze Age in this area has been under discussion. In this paper, we present 23 new AMS dates from Late Bronze Age sites in the steppe and forest steppe areas of the southern Trans-Urals and northwestern Kazakhstan. This includes the first successful dating of cremated bone samples from this area. Bayesian modeling was conducted to date the Late Bronze Age into three chronological phases. The considerable number of outliers suggests previously undetected biases in the material. In addition, we found differences between the Bayesian models of the steppe and forest steppe areas that are not reflected in the archaeological record. This study emphasizes the value of Bayesian modeling for the prehistoric chronology of the Great Urals but also highlights its issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, chronic kidney disease (CKD) was prevalent in 697.5 million individuals worldwide in 2017. By 2040, it is anticipated that CKD will rank as the fifth most common cause of death. This study aims to examine the epidemiology of CKD in Kazakhstan and to project future trends in CKD prevalence and mortality by 2030. The retrospective analysis was performed on a database acquired from the Unified National Electronic Health System for 703,122 patients with CKD between 2014 and 2020. During the observation period, 444,404 women and 258,718 men were registered with CKD, 459,900 (66%) were Kazakhs and 47% were older than 50. The incidence rate notably decreased: 6365 people per million population (PMP) in 2014 and 4040 people PMP in 2020. The prevalence changed from 10,346 to 38,287 people PMP, and the mortality rate increased dramatically from 279 PMP to 916 PMP. Kazakhstan's central regions, Turkestan and Kyzylorda were identified as the most burdensome ones. The ARIMA model projected 1,504,694 expected prevalent cases in 2030. The predicted mortality climbed from 17,068 cases in 2020 to 37,305 deaths in 2030. By 2030, the prevalence and mortality of CKD will significantly increase, according to the predicted model. A thorough action plan with effective risk factor management, enhanced screening among risk populations, and prompt treatment are required to lessen the burden of disease in Kazakhstan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of subjective well-being (SWB) have increased in recent years. However, there is limited information on how employment in the public sector affects SWB. Using representative World Values Survey (WVS) data from Kazakhstan, this study analyzes how working in the public sector affects SWB and whether financial satisfaction mediates this relationship. The findings demonstrate that although a positive relationship exists between working in the public sector and financial satisfaction, working in the public sector does not affect SWB. In other words, public sector employment does not matter for SWB, although it matters for financial satisfaction. These findings offer insights into studies of SWB, particularly for less studied contexts, such as Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diverse education market has formed in Kazakhstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Previous studies of educational choice in Central Asia have laid a general foundation, but greater insight into class differences has not been studied in Central Asia. We utilize data collected in 2015 from over 300 households in six cities in Kazakhstan to compare social class and ethnic differences in parents' choices in the educational market. We found only slight differences in school choice based on social class, as measured by wealth and parental education. Ethnic differences were also slight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an intervention using a smartphone application for psychological self-help among adolescents at risk of suicidal behavior. Over 12 weeks, a proprietary program was implemented for children aged 13–15. The questionnaire results of the experimental and control groups were compared using the independent samples t-test. The research results underscore the practical significance of employing self-help psychological apps as an additional tool in working with youth at risk of suicidal behavior. Integrating such technologies into adolescent interventions can contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of psychological support and preventing negative mental health consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documents play a vital role in constructing political regimes and their geopolitical relations. In this article, we analyse a particular type of document – the 21st century national vision – and examine its political work. Often glossy (digital) documents featuring simple slogans, fantastic plans, and claims to global relevance and prestige, national visions make specific futures present and close off room for alternative interpretations. Combining work in critical geopolitics with research on nation branding and authoritarian legitimation, we argue that national vision documents are productive – rather than merely reflective – of geopolitical scripts and the future they make possible. Analysing this practice in three image-savvy non-democratic regimes – Kazakhstan, Qatar and Thailand – we show how such scripts are simplified in national vision documents and displace the complexity of the spaces they claim to represent. The oversimplified abstractions they present then resonate widely in national and public discourse, where they obscure struggles over national identity, directions of economic development, and the nature of political orders. Rather than superficial branding documents, national visions are key documents for the making of authoritarian regime legitimation claims today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For small open economies such as Slovakia, foreign demand is a significant factor in economic growth. Since Slovakia acceded to the European Union, its exports have focused primarily on the EU internal market. Therefore, one of its goals is to diversify the territorial structure of foreign trade. Kazakhstan is the economic engine of Central Asia, which has made significant efforts in recent years to transform its economy. The aim of the case study of the Slovak Republic is to examine its export opportunities to Kazakhstan using selected one-factor indicators of competitiveness based on their mutual foreign trade. The imbalance in Slovakia-Kazakhstan's foreign trade suggests sizable reserves. The work evaluates their foreign trade relations through indices of trade intensity, complementarity, and intra-industry trade. It identifies the export potential of Slovakia based on the concept of revealed comparative advantages and import significance of Kazakhstan in the examined period. In 2020, The export potential was used only at 2%, the export gap was 95,928 mil. EUR and concerned 56 commodities at the level of HS 4 aggregation. Considering the geographical distance and costs, Slovakia should focus on the export of goods with higher added value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An application of Bologna Process parameters in the classroom setting requires new skills on the part of students. One of these significant skills is the ability to reflect upon one's learning path, which provides an opportunity for students to enhance their knowledge, and, moreover, make pivotal changes in their professional field. Thus, students would benefit greatly from reflective learning skills being harnessed at the early stage of their learning. Aim. This study aims to explore students' reflections and interpretations of their learning through writing essays. Methodology and research methods. This study employed a survey design with open-ended questions in which 14 out of 23 students participated. In addition, two individual inter-views were conducted, and 345 weekly essays and 23 final student reflections were analyzed. Results. Research results found that over 50% of respondents indicated that they had ac-quired reflective skills as they reflected on their content learning and writing and reading skills. Indeed, 96% of respondents demonstrated a positive understanding of the structure of the essay; however, their reflections remained at the descriptive level, in contrast to an expected change in their learning approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of improving consumer protection legislation is due to many economic and legal factors, starting with the conceptualization of common concepts. Against the background of recent political and legal initiatives in the field of consumer protection, this issue has become particularly important for the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK). In this study, a retrospective analysis of consumer protection regulation was carried out. Global trends in legal regulation of consumer protection in the RK are considered in the light of their implementation in Kazakhstani legislation. The research implies to consider the trends in changing the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of consumer rights regulation from the point of view of the reception of world experience. In the study, the analysis of consumer rights protection in the multifaceted system of legal protection models is carried out and their classification is derived. As a result of a comprehensive analysis, it was concluded that it is expedient to implement the norms of international law, European law into the national legislation of Kazakhstan, modernized in 2020, taking into account the proven examples of global legal mechanisms and practices for protecting consumer rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducts a comparative analysis of Ukraine and the Republic of Kazakhstan, two post-Soviet states facing ongoing contradictions and challenges in mutual understanding. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, these states embarked on their own paths of national development, influenced by various political, economic, socio-cultural, and ethnic factors. This study examines the formation of political parties, the development of political and electoral culture, and the legal approaches to organizing the electoral process in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Additionally, it explores the manipulation of electoral behavior through a specific case study. The study employs standard political research methods such as comparative analysis, anthropological and structural-functional approaches, content analysis, and a systematic approach. The findings of this study serve as valuable information for experts involved in organizing electoral processes, researchers in comparative political science, and readers interested in the subject matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is aimed at examination of the first-year students' opinion about distance education, as well as their social behaviour and academic performance during online English language classes in Kazakhstan. The initial survey was conducted among the freshmen of the four biggest universities of Kazakhstan: KazUIR&WL after Ablai khan, KazNU after al-Farabi, KazNPU after Abay and AlmaU. The aim of the survey was to investigate the students' personal needs and attitude towards online education, their needs and personal feelings about the learning process. On February 1, in Kazakhstan, the situation with distance education changed, and some of the freshmen were allowed to switch back to the traditional learning (for practical disciplines only, e.g. English). Thus, the next stage of the study was to specify the impact of distant learning onto the social behaviour and academic performance of the freshmen of KazUIR&WL after Ablaikhan, by observing their English language classes (traditional and online) and compare the results. The two-week classes examination resulted in the undeniable fact that distance education phenomenon affects learners' behaviour and performance during the lesson, but not always in a negative way, as it is traditionally thought. Taking into consideration the situation with the pandemic of COVID-19 and a growing possibility of transferring a greater part of education to online regime, the findings reported in this study might be found of a particular interest by scholars and policymakers in educational sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Soviet breakup, rural communities in the Kazakhstan–China borderlands have faced cataclysmic social, economic, and ecological transformations. Collective and state farms have been replaced by precarious smallholder agriculture suffering from a decline in financial inputs and the deterioration of infrastructure. At the same time, dynamic transformations of border permeability (and trans-border reconnections) between Kazakhstan and China have challenged the until relatively recent widespread Soviet rhetoric on Western China (or rather Xinjiang) as an underdeveloped space across the border. This article is based on several months of fieldwork between 2019 and 2021 in Panfilov District, located at major cross-border road and railway intersections and hosting important infrastructural objects, such as a dry port, a major railway transhipment hub, and a trans-border special economic zone. The article explores how the border situation (and the border's changing permeability for people, commodities, and ideas since the early 1990s) as well as the implementation of new trans-border infrastructures eventually shaped local discourses and practices in the socio-economic development of south-east Kazakhstan's agricultural sector. It is scrutinized herein how various forms of trans-border socio-economic interactions (although heavily regulated) and China's (agri-) economic policy in Xinjiang started to affect farmers' ambitions and practices across the border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University-industry research partnerships are crucial for promoting university entrepreneurship. Faculty as key instigators play a critical role in developing such partnerships. Previous studies demonstrate that faculty engagement depends on a diverse set of factors. Drawing on individual interviews with 76 faculty members from eight public and private universities in Kazakhstan, this study explores factors affecting faculty decisions to engage in industry research partnerships in a developing country. Applying the personal engagement theory, we found that despite perceiving industry partnerships as personally meaningful and being driven by extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, faculty engagement in industry research partnerships in Kazakhstan is limited. The reasons for this are faculty members' feelings of low safety and availability caused by structural-, organisational- and individual-level barriers and challenges. We also found that some of these barriers and challenges can be more specific for developing countries that tend to have immature economies, suffer from corruption, have limited research capacity, and invest less in research activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed-methods study is the first to explore the association between fee-charging private supplementary tutoring (PT) participation and access to higher education in Kazakhstan from the perspectives of Grade 11 students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guided by the work of Entrich in 2018, a four-dimensional model of educational inequality in PT, this study found that the scale of PT had expanded during the pandemic, with 75.06% (623 out of 830) of participants engaged in PT, mainly to excel in the university entrance examinations and gain a state grant at their preferred university in Kazakhstan. Also, 73.8% of the students spent 40,000 tenge (US$88) or less on PT per month. Although participants' families prioritized boys for providing PT services, most participants neither agreed nor disagreed that PT was a financial pressure on their families, probably because the majority attended group tutoring delivered at tutorial centres, and this mode of tutoring reduced the unit cost and gave them the attention they needed from their tutors. The 30 interviewees had positive attitudes towards PT, but some mentioned a few of its disadvantages, including the spread of less qualified, costly tutors due to the unregulated PT market in Kazakhstan. This study suggests pedagogical implications and areas for ongoing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 2022, the government of the Russian Federation proposed the creation of a "Trilateral Gas Union" with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Commentators were quick to focus on the Central Asian dimensions of the proposal, in particular the potential expansion of Russian influence in the region or Russia's attempts to substitute exports to the region for the drop in its natural gas exports to Europe. This article suggests there is a bigger picture to consider. It argues that the Central Asian natural gas market is too small for Russia to justify investing millions of dollars in modernising the old Soviet gas network. Instead, it analyses the capacities of various regional markets, traces the logic of earlier moves by Russia and connects them with ongoing infrastructural projects in the broader region, notably the "Pakistan Stream", the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan–Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, and the North–South corridor. It argues that Russia's proposal makes economic sense only if the redirection of gas flows would expand Russia's natural gas exports at least to China (via Central Asia) while potentially setting the stage for Russian piped gas to enter South Asian markets, opening a "window to India". The article discusses possible scenarios and structural pre-conditions for the realisation of these possibilities while analyzing the various motivations, causal linkages, and mechanisms that have been driving the Trilateral Gas Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual completion of the human genome project, proteomes have gained extremely important value in the fields of human disease and biological process research. In our previous research, we performed transcriptomic analyses of longissimus dorsi tissue from Kazakh cattle and Xinjiang brown cattle and conducted in-depth studies on the muscles of both species through epigenetics. However, it is unclear whether differentially expressed proteins in Kazakh cattle and Xinjiang brown cattle regulate muscle production and development. In this study, a proteomic analysis was performed on Xinjiang brown cattle and Kazakh cattle by using TMT markers, HPLC classification, LC/MS and bioinformatics analysis. A total of 13,078 peptides were identified, including 11,258 unique peptides. We identified a total of 1874 proteins, among which 1565 were quantifiable. Compared to Kazakh cattle, Xinjiang brown cattle exhibited 75 upregulated proteins and 44 downregulated proteins. These differentially expressed proteins were enriched for the functions of adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes, fatty acid degradation and glutathione metabolism. In our research, we found differentially expressed proteins in longissimus dorsi tissue between Kazakh cattle and Xinjiang brown cattle. We predict that these proteins regulate muscle production and development through select enriched signaling pathways. This study provides novel insights into the roles of proteomes in cattle genetics and breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the long-term economic performance in former Soviet republics of Central Asia for the last three decades. We look at sources of economic growth based on the extended version of the neoclassical growth model. Our key focus is to see whether human capital in the form of education and health inputs has an impact on growth rates in the region. Results show that over the entire period under study, on average, the growth rates of total factor productivity (TFP) were not remarkable, ranging from 1.4% for Kazakhstan and 0.51% for Tajikistan to −1.13% for the Kyrgyz Republic. Kazakhstan as a frontier economy of the region maintained better economic results in almost all indicators. Since 2000, TFP growth rates were notably stronger in Tajikistan compared to Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. However, a reduction in TFP in Tajikistan in the 1990s is attributed to the country's dire civil war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the factors that impact corruption perception at individual levels. Based on a survey of 12,010 Kazakhstanis, the study investigates people's assessment of corruption in Kazakhstan and their attitudes toward government anticorruption policy. The result reveals that, on average, the population perceives that a high rate of corruption exists in Kazakhstan. Simultaneously, the regression analysis shows that there are three main determinants that affect people's perception of corruption. First, and most saliently, regional and cultural backgrounds do have an impact on people's perception of corruption levels. In addition, the study results reveal that among the participants' demographic and social qualifiers, the education level has considerable influence in driving perceptions. Finally, the findings point out that actual experience with corruption play a significant role in forming views regarding the overall level of corruption in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female entrepreneurs in Central Asia contribute to economic development through their business establishment and workplace creation for others. Research shows that the motivation of women to start a business differs based on time and place-specific factors. Extant studies argue that women in developing economies opt for entrepreneurship because of push factors such as economic necessity and the need for a work-home balance. In contrast, women in advanced economies choose to be self-employed due to pull factors such as the need for self-actualization and independence. This study proposes a conceptual model to understand female entrepreneurial leadership in Kazakhstan by exploring the perceptions and experiences of women entrepreneurs within their leadership roles. It adopted Stewart's model of role demands-constraints-choices (DCC) to understand their perceptions of the demands, constraints, and choices they experience within their leadership roles, exploring the main drivers for Kazakhstani women's business establishment decisions addressing an existing knowledge gap on entrepreneurial leadership by aggregating three critical constructs of gender, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Based on semi-structured interviews, this study finds that Kazakhstani women start a business to earn an income, feed their children, and provide better living conditions. The findings also indicate that the case of women entrepreneurs' motivation in Kazakhstan is distinct from existing literature on female entrepreneurs' motivation in Central Asia developing economies. Kazakhstani women start businesses to earn income, feed children, and improve living conditions. Drivers are distinct from female entrepreneurs in Central Asia's developing economies. Push strategies are a major driver for Kazakhstani women entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article starts by anatomising the various strategies used by the Soviet regime to contain and 'disappear' the nuclear weapon test site in Kazakhstan before moving on to outline attempts by the independent Republic of Kazakshtan's National Nuclear Centre (NNC) to be more open—including making much of the site available for commercial and agricultural use, after 25 years of remediation and monitoring. Juxtaposing these strategies with accounts from residents living in the town that hosts the NNC provides far more ambivalent engagements with both town and site. Thus, in what I call a chronotope of expansion, what appears is a resistance to any kind of spatial or temporal containment, a denial of progress and the possibility of moving to a brighter nuclear future by leaving behind the Soviet period and its entailments. I end by discussing the consequences of assumptions that the site can be limited and bounded in terms of radioactive contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article studies the economic background and reasons for the protest actions of the population on the example of major riots in the regions of Kazakhstan in early 2022. The theory of relative deprivation explains the occurrence of unrest by the growth of social tension in groups of the population who are dissatisfied with living conditions. According to the authors, the causes of the unrest were economic factors. There are many studies on political, inter-ethnic, inter-religious, and other factors of protest actions, but not enough research on the economic factors of urban unrest. The study aims to identify the economic causes of the outbreak of violence in the country's regions. The research methodology was based on comparative statistical analysis and building a probit model based on panel data. We have established that the growth of the subsistence minimum, the increase in the proportion of the population with incomes below the subsistence minimum, and, especially, the depth of poverty and the acuity of poverty are reasons for social tension, which, after the small trigger, turned into large-scale urban unrest. Moreover, neither income inequality nor rising unemployment was a significant factor in the protest actions. The results indicate the need for the authorities to monitor the socio-economic indicators of the regions and take measures to prevent their significant deterioration, especially the depth and acuity of poverty. A similar empirical approach can be applied to analyzing the economic causes of unrest in regions of other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which explored the perspectives and experiences of school key stakeholders such as administration, teachers and students related to a 12-year schooling pilot reform implementation in one mainstream school piloting this reform from 2003 to 2015 in Kazakhstan. Topics include the complexities of implementing educational change in Kazakhstan and other countries, the role of the stakeholders in the process of change and the approaches to 12-year educational reforms.

The article examines Kazakhstan's relations with Southeast Asia, an area of study which has been given little attention so far. It firstly analyzes Kazakhstan's multivector foreign policy, arguing that Kazakhstan has been trying to pursue an omnidirectional hedging strategy by diversifying its partners to enhance its strategic space. Secondly, it looks at how Southeast Asia is seen as part of this strategy, particularly as alternative economic partners for Kazakhstan. It argues that there are greater opportunities for enhanced economic interaction due to Kazakhstan's central role in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), membership of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) that is shifting toward Asia, and reinvigorated economic diplomacy. Thirdly, it examines Kazakhstan's relations with five key Southeast Asian states – Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand – which are Kazakhstan's largest trading partners in the region and arguably viewed as the Southeast Asian countries with the most potential to play a role in Kazakhstan's omnidirectional hedging strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illiberal policy innovation has grown in post-Soviet Eurasia over the 2010s, especially regarding controversial moral and cultural issues. These have often been developed by illiberal entrepreneur states and then taken up elsewhere. This article reviews the case of the Russian "homosexual propaganda" law, situating the particular domestic context for its legislative development and then turning to the partial diffusion of "copycat" versions debated in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia. Although Russian illiberal innovation can be understood through domestic drivers of policy development, attempts to pass illiberal laws elsewhere are better explained by the interaction of domestic political incentives and international factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and infrastructural development has led to growing concerns regarding the future of Central Asia's water resources. However, few attempts have been made to assess the impacts this will have on specific transboundary basins within the region. This article explores how the context of the BRI transcends its physical impacts within the Ili and Irtysh basins, creating a sanctioned discourse that forecloses the possibility of 'successful' negotiations at an official level. As such, pathways to transboundary water management that exist beyond the negotiations are shown to have greater plausibility and potential effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Ziziphora of the family Lamiaceae is well known for the medicinal properties of its species. Ziziphora persica is an edible medicinal plant, which is widely distributed in countries of Iran, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Azaerbaidzhan and is famed as a wild vegetable with notable aroma and flavor. In Iranian folk medicine, Ziziphora species has been also used as infusions for various purposes such as sedative, stomachic and carminative among others. The genus Ziziphora belongs to the Lamiaceae family consists of four species (Z. clinopodioides, Z. capitata, Z. persica and Z. tenuior) that widespread all over Iran. Ziziphora with common Persian name 'kakuti-e kuhi' comprised nine subspecies native to Iran. The composition and antibacterial and antioxidant activity of the essential oil and various extracts of Ziziphora persica were reported. This review presents and overview on the Eco-phytochemistry and Ethnobotany knowledge of Ziziphora persica and provides a deeper insight into phytochemistry of this specie. Relevant data were obtained through systematic electronic searches from various scientific databases including the institute of scientific information (ISI)-web of science, mendely desktop, google scholar, scopus, ISC, Pubmed, other relevant texts and local books. This review is concerned with characterization of chemical profiles of essential oils, extracts and volatiles, along with relevant biological and phytochemical properties of Ziziphora persica over the 32-year period, 1988–2020. A variety of Eco-phytochemistry and Ethnobotany properties of the Ziziphora persica has been documented, and phytochemicals of the essential oils of this specie has been identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]