Research Symposium “Rethinking Central Asian Authoritarianisms: From Elite Legitimacy to Everyday Navigation”

The International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies (IRGAC) draws attention to Authoritarian politics in Central Asia, a region with long-established authoritarian and illiberal practices yet marginal in global academic debates. Local forms of authoritarianism have been until recently interpreted within a dominant framework of neo-patrimonialism and elite-led projects. We seek to widen this analytical lens by adding a needed focus on ideologies, legitimacy, a strong emphasis on concrete state structures and new technologies in oversighting control and repression, as well as on constituencies. The study of these smaller polities where authoritarianism has been played more openly for several decades can greatly contribute to the rising global debates on authoritarianism.

Date & Venue

April 16-17, 2026

University of Potsdam, Campus Griebnitzsee, August-Bebel-Straße 89, 14482 Potsdam

Program (partly hybrid)

Day 1, April 16th:

13.00 - 13.15: Börries Nehe & Fabian Schuppert IRGAC/ Uni Potsdam

13.15 – 14.15: Asel Doolotkeldieva (Uni Potsdam) “Affect, Strategic Spending, and Control of the Narrative: ‘Legitimate’ Kyrgyz Authoritarianism vs. ‘Illegitimate’ Kazakh Authoritarianism”

14.15 – 14.35: Coffee break

14.35 – 15.35: Assel Tutumlu (Near East University, Northern Cyprus) “The Locus of Power: The Story of Land Dispossession in Kazakhstan”

15.35 – 15.55: Coffee break

15.55 – 16.55: Matthew Blackburn (The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) “Interlinked Autocracies in a Multivector Eurasia: The Domestic and Transnational Dynamics of Regime Stability in Post-Soviet Eurasia”

16.55 – 17.30: Final Discussion

Day 2, April 17th:

09.30 – 10.30: Rustamjon Urinboyev (Lund University, online) “Everyday Authoritarianism: How Authoritarian Rule Is Enacted and Normalised in Daily Encounters with the State”

10.30 – 10.50: Coffee break

10.50 – 11.50: Irna Hofman (Leiden University) "Contestation and consolidation: lived authoritarianism in rural Tajikistan"

12.00 – 13.00: Lunch

13.00 – 14.00: Ildar Daminov (Central European University) “Wiring the Leviathan? State Capacities and the Political Economy of “Digital Authoritarianism” in Central Asia”

14.00 – 14.20: Coffee break

14.20 – 15.20: Helene Thibault (Nazarbayev University) “Political Denunciation and Panopticon Control in Tajikistan”

15.20 – 15.40: Coffee break

15.40 – 17.00: Final discussion 

Please register for this in-person event by writing to events@irgac.org by April 12.