Culture and Environment in Inner Asia: 2: Society and Culture: 002 - Hardcover

Complementing The Pastoral Economy and the Environment, this volume examines the great social change experienced throughout the region following the demise of the Soviet Union, the advent of democracy in Russia and the economic reforms in China. Its contents include an examination of social attitudes regarding the environment, education, employment and unemployment, the effect of privatization policies, women's work, and traditional pastoral practice and relationship with the environment of the Oirat Mongols.

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.