Sewing to satisfaction: craft-based entrepreneurs in contemporary Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

This article focuses on the reassembling of apparel production in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. We contribute to this special issue on well-being in Central Asia by examining how individual craft-based apparel producers (a subset of producers in the apparel industry) describe the process through which they built upon their Soviet past and reoriented their professional trajectories in a new competitive market environment. These producers locate professional satisfaction in their ability to draw upon and creatively re-employ local knowledge and experience learned in Soviet institutions, ultimately -as they articulate and perceivederiving pride and well-being from the process of selling highly regarded ethnically inspired apparel products both at home and abroad.

The impact of remittances and equivalence scales on poverty in Tajikistan

“…It is for this reason that we believe it is appropriate to describe people as 'negotiating' changes in state and society through markets and trade. Indeed, past scholarship on informal markets and trade serves as a timeline for how peopleand strategieshave adapted to changing circumstances over 30 years (Alff 2014;Bobokhyan, Abrahamian, and Franklin 2014;Botoeva and Spector 2013;Dyatlov and Grigorichev 2015;Ledeneva 1998;Nasritdinov 2006;Rudaz 2017;Stefes 2008). Scholarship on markets and trade, including that presented here, is also a reflection of how citizens of the new republics connected with the world beyond (Stephan-Emmrich and Schröder 2018).…”

A cautionary tale: Bazaar trade and limitations to growth in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

“…The recent discourse of modernity and order in the marketplace in Central Asia and the Caucasus, that foreshadows state aspirations to transition from the bazaar to the modern market, is, of course, based on a developmentalist teleology not dissimilar to that which had been proposed by Geertz. Where firms have emerged, such as in the garment manufacturing sector in Kyrgyzstan, firm owners have sometimes capitalized on traffic through the bazaar to showcase their produce in wholesale and retail markets (Interview with Dordoi director August 8, 2016; Alff, 2015;Botoeva & Spector, 2013). 2 When we last visited Kara-Suu bazaar in 2017, the nearby border crossing with Uzbekistan was still closed.…”

“…More recent figures (2014) put Kazakhstan's 'illegal' migrants at one million (Stratfor, 2014). 6 In recent years, Kyrgyzstan-in particular Dordoi-has emerged as an important hub for garment manufacturing (Botoeva & Spector, 2013;Spector, 2017). 7 Pearson's chi-square test has been conducted to assess the how independent the variable travel is from the variable business growth; a p-value = 0.01636 indicates that the two variables are interrelated.…”

“…Our findings challenge the notion that individual labour and ingenuity by itself might lead to enterprise growth. The only exception is the Kyrgyzstan apparel sector (Botoeva & Spector, 2013; Spector, 2017b; see also Rudaz, 2017). Here there is local manufacturing, with an entire portion of Dordoi bazaar devoted to apparel, and Made‐in‐Kyrgyzstan garments, making inroads into the school uniform market in neighbouring Kazakhstan.…”

“…66In recent years, Kyrgyzstan—in particular Dordoi—has emerged as an important hub for garment manufacturing (Botoeva & Spector, 2013; Spector, 2017). …”