Publisher's Synopsis
This volume describes the enormous social change which inner Asia has experienced, due to the advent of democracy in Russia and economic reforms in China. It investigates how long-term historical social changes, produced by migration and economic development, were succeeded by the effects of socialist organization and then by the divergent paths of capitalism and privatization. It shows how the steppe environment is not pristine "nature", but intermeshed with these processes, and with the distinctive, often religious, attitudes of the pastoral people. The book also covers topics such as the effect of recent reforms on the division of labour and employment, education, health and medicine, women's work and language and ethnicity.
