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Introduction to Survey Research in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Tasks, Challenges and Frontiers

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Social Capital Construction and Governance in Central Asia

Part of the book series: Politics and History in Central Asia ((PSPSCA))

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Abstract

This chapter will outline the problems and challenges associated with social research in Central Asia in general and in Uzbekistan in particular. This chapter will first introduce the types of public polls conducted in CA, classifying them into the various areas they target and the aims of the studies conducted. In the second part, it will provide an account of the public opinion polling efforts in Central Asia initiated in Japan, citing several projects conducted and outlining their differences compared with the polling conducted in CA. This part will analyze not only ongoing or completed projects, such as the AsiaBarometer, but also those in which the CA direction is in the initial stage of exploration, as exemplified by the Special Project for the Study of Civil Society. This will not only serve as a source of information but will also offer specific examples of challenges faced by the scholars involved in this type of research. The third part will highlight the challenges that scholars are normally faced with when attempting to poll CA societies. An outline of these challenges is divided into the following two groups: conceptual and logistical. After providing an account of these challenges, the final part of this chapter will conclude by summarizing the main ideas and offering potential areas for further public opinion polling in CA. This chapter will also explain the methodology behind data collected on civil society organizations in Uzbekistan. The survey itself has been conducted between 2006 and 2007 in regard to two separate types of organizations: (1) neighborhood organizations and (2) nonprofit organizations (including NGOs). These surveys are parts of a larger project called the Cross-national Survey on Civil Society Organisations and Interests Groups operated by the University of Tsukuba. Along with Uzbekistan, similar surveys were conducted in 14 other countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Estonia, Germany, India, Japan, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.S. The generic name of the survey is the Japan Interest Group Study (JIGS).

Thus, this chapter explains the data samples, the population from which these samples are selected, the related features and a few limitations of the JIGS survey in Uzbekistan. This chapter goes beyond explaining the methodology for data collection to elaborate on the need for an empirical baseline analysis of social capital in non-democratic settings.

This chapter develops the ideas of the short academic essay: 2005b. Measuring Central Asian societies: The beginning of the process, Asuno Toyogaku, 13: 3–6. Tokyo: University of Tokyo, Institute of Oriental Culture. This chapter is also a rewritten version of my article “Introduction to the Survey Research in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Tasks, Challenges and Frontiers” published in Asian Research Trends: New Series (NART), No. 3, Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, pp. 45-70, 2008. While some of the empirical evidence might need update from recent social polling, conceptual and logistical challenges explained in this chapter are as actual as they were when initial article has been published.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Timur Dadabaev

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  1. Timur Dadabaev
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  1. University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Timur Dadabaev

  2. University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Murod Ismailov

  3. University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Yutaka Tsujinaka

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Dadabaev, T. (2017). Introduction to Survey Research in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Tasks, Challenges and Frontiers. In: Dadabaev, T., Ismailov, M., Tsujinaka, Y. (eds) Social Capital Construction and Governance in Central Asia. Politics and History in Central Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52233-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52233-7_2

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