Project description
A closer look at central Asia’s environmental and cultural challenges
As you travel towards Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan, a stark contrast emerges: a gleaming EXPO building celebrating green energy stands in the shadow of a smog-choked skyline. Central Asia’s industrial boom in the 20th century has left a legacy of environmental degradation and economic instability, particularly in mining and industrial towns. The collapse of these industries in the 1990s not only devastated local economies, but also disrupted cultural identities tied to urban progress and modernity. In this context, the ERC-funded ANTHEFT project studies how communities experience and respond to their polluted landscapes. It explores historical and contemporary perspectives on environmental damage, socio-economic impacts, and local narratives, aiming to bridge global environmental concerns with regional realities.
Objective
Driving from the airport towards the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan will carry the passenger past the new EXPO building with its permanent exhibition on Kazakhstans bright future of smart green energy while in the distance the skyscraper silhouette of the ultra-modern city centre is clouded in smog. In Kazakhstan as elsewhere in Central Asia, the future of the countrys industrial heritage polarises the public.
In the 20th century, Central Asia was transformed into a hub of rapid industrialisation but mining and industrial towns experienced a critical time with collapsing industries and infrastructure during the 1990s. This not only left people economically vulnerable but touched at the very core of local identity in a socio-cultural setting where urbanity epitomises civilisation, modernity, culturedness and wellbe-ing. Simultaneously, the environmental costs of resource extraction and industrial production became visible. Calls for a global shift towards reducing environmental impact also resonate in post-socialist countries, often in a top-down manner. The voices of those living in and with these places are rarely heard. Juxtaposing different experiences raises questions of environmental justice, future livelihoods and feelings of nostalgia for different pasts.
This is where ANTHEFT comes in. ANTHEFT pursues three objectives at the interface of work and environment in polluted landscapes: 1) identify temporalities, affects, future(s) and memory, 2) de-scribe discursive strategies by which local communities express and make sense of their so-cio-economic and environmental histories and identities, 3) analyse local understandings and morali-ties of environmental damage, progress, good living and place-making. ANTHEFT is a ground-breaking project that proposes to venture into a long dure, translocal research on Central Asian industrial work and environment from the late 18th century to the present incorporating disparate memories, perspec-tives and experiences.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1010 Wien
Austria
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