Public Space Politics in the Nation-Building of Central Asian Countries 中亚国家建构中的公共空间政治

Nation-building is an important process of political socialization in contemporary multi-ethnic countries. In this important process, a major variable that multi-ethnic countries need to weigh is the issue of public space. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the independent central Asian countries began to shape their national identity within the framework of nation-building in view of the crises of legitimacy and identity they faced. As an important variable in the construction of multi-ethnic countries, public space has been instrumentally designed because it contains national cultural symbols and shapes national identity, thus forming public space politics. There are two main characteristics of public space politics in Central Asian countries: first, they can consolidate the new country and influence the people’s national identity by renaming the public space; second, they can strengthen the subjectivity of the country through memorial inscriptions and sculptures in the public space. Public space politics involves the transfer of tradition, the domination of power, and the shaping of identity. It can also hedge the crisis of legitimacy and identity faced by Central Asian countries. Therefore, in the process of nation-building in Central Asian countries, public space politics attempts to seek a balance and compromise mechanism between “ethnic-state” and “citizen-state.”