Production de l’espace urbain et mise en scène du pouvoir dans deux capitales « présidentielles » d’Asie Centrale

Abstract

This article deals with the capitals of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, respectively Ashgabat, and Astana. These two studies provide the opportunity to carry an inventory of the tools available to help analyze the relations between ‘space’ (the object of geography) and ‘power’ (the object of political science). In each of these two cities, the head of state has promoted himself to chief architect and urbanist, exerting significant influence on city planning. At the same time, the city is used as a showcase for political power: the figure of the ruler is glorified with an ever-increasing number of monuments, and the ‘neotraditional’ architecture serves as an illustration and a justification of a nationalistic agenda. The authors investigate the double aspect of Central Asian authoritarian urbanism, as a way both to produce space and uphold the regime. In the process of doing so, they offer keys to understanding and analyzing the relations between power and the city. By urging political science and geography to devise a common approach, this article wishes to promote closer collaboration between the two fields of research. Through this mutual enhancement, political science could fully apprehend the space of human societies, while geography would be provided with new tools to scrutinize those who construct the city and its representations.

Keywords

• (social) production of the city
• Achgabat (Turkmenistan)
• architecture
• Astana (Kazakhstan)
• capital cities
• city as a showcase for power