The hidden integration of Central Asia

The making of a region through technical infrastructures

Bibliographic Data

ID11450841
AuthorsPer Högselius (0000-0001-9687-1940, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume41
Issue2
Pages223-243
Publication date2022-04-03
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCentral Asian Survey (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-4937 • E-ISSN: 1465-3354
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02634937.2021.1953963
OpenAlexW3196139641
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited24

This article challenges existing interpretations of Central Asia as a geographical entity. Adopting a history of technology approach to defining and analytically ‘constructing’ Central Asia as a region, it scrutinizes the ways the region has been materially created over the years through four types of large technical systems (infrastructures): waterways, railways, electricity grids and natural gas pipelines. This process, which is traced over a period of 150 years, can be thought of as Central Asia’s ‘hidden integration’ (and ‘hidden fragmentation’). The article maps the processes through which different parts of the region have become technically interlinked through the four systems, and Central Asia’s resulting ‘network geography’. It also studies the historical tensions, as they evolved over time, between ‘system-builders’ and ‘border-builders’

Central asia · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Electricity · Fragmentation (computing · Geography · Physical geography · Pipeline transport · Process (computing · Regional science · Belt and Road Initiative · Computer Science · Engineering · Russia and Soviet political economy · Soviet and Russian History

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Open DOIOpen Access