Beril Ocaklı - How has extractivism played out in Soviet and post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan?

This month on the podcast we were joined by Beril Ocaklı to discuss extractivisms through the lens of post-soviet spaces. Beril is a critical institutional economist and commons researcher with a track record of leading international transdisciplinary cooperation projects in resource governance. Challenged by the realities on the ground, she has returned to academia in 2015 for pursuing her doctoral research on resource conflicts in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. Currently based at IRI THESys,  Humboldt University of Berlin, she explores processes and practices that make and unmake Kyrgyzstan’s gold rush. Our conversation was wide ranging, and we learned about the role of mining in Kyrgyzstan both under and after the Soviet Union. Beril gives us insight into the experience in two different case sites, one that was a mining town during Soviet times and one that was not. This is an interesting dive into the iterations of extractivisms that are far removed from the Latin American context. Find Beril on Twitter @BerilOcakli and on her ResearchGate and LinkedIn profiles. If you are interested in Beril’s research, check out her recently published co-authored article: “Shades of Conflict in Kyrgyzstan: National Actor Perceptions and Behaviour in Mining” The documentaries mentioned: “Flowers of Freedom” by Mirjam Leuze http://flowers-of-freedom.com/pages/en/about-the-film.php “Meken” by Medetbek Jalilov https://eurasianet.org/kyrgyzstan-drama-about-mining-protests-banned-from-cinema-screens https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/12018/kyrgyz-film-meken-mining-protests-banned-cinemas-watch-online-for-free “A tunnel” by Nino Orjonikidze, Vano Arsenishvili https://german-documentaries.de/en_EN/films/a-tunnel.13631