How do we account for foreign firms that are successful in politically “risky” countries? While traditional political risk indices may tell us why a country is considered a difficult operating environment, they tell us very little about why some foreign firms are nevertheless able to operate successfully in such countries over long periods of time. In fact, risk indices by their very nature make “success” almost impossible to capture due to their sole focus on “host country” behavior. Rather, as this thesis argues, the political risk is in the relationship between the firm and a series of stakeholders within a given country, not the country itself. This is a thesis of deviant cases: it holds the “successful relationship” between a foreign firm and its stakeholders as the constant dependent variable in the “significantly risky” country of Kazakhstan. Success is defined as the ability of each actor to pursue its own goals to a self-satisfactory degree, with the resources an actor mobilizes to achieve those goals and the constraints that restrict those resources as the independent variables. Three self-contained cases of “successful” foreign mining firms operating in Kazakhstan are analyzed here to determine the distinct causal pathways that led each firm to seeming “success”; the thesis then pivots to a between-subjects examination aimed at drawing out the common themes among the three different foreign firms. Within international relations theory, the relationship between the foreign firm and its stakeholders is considered here as a window into the intersection of the international political economy and the domestic political economy of a country in transition, but critically, allotting agents and structures equal ontological status. Thus the ultimate aim of this investigation is to enrich our understanding of social behavior – here, co-existence – within the context of the agent- structure debate in larger social scientific inquiry.

This study aims to account for the high degree of influence and intensity displayed in bi-lateral relations between Russia and the other post-Soviet states - specifically Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (BUK.) It seeks to do so by employing an analytical framework based around the concept of 'post-Imperialism,' arguing that persistent legacies of the imperial past have both ensured a high degree of intensity in bilateral relationships as well as providing pathways of influence over certain policy areas - primarily for Russia, but in some instances for BUK as well. It also seeks to examine imperial legacy issues as distinct 'types' - from physical economic and military infrastructure, to cross-border constellations of elite personnel to the normative and cognitive inheritances of imperialism amongst both the elite and the population at large. It concludes that Russia has been able to mobilise and employ power resources not available to alternative actors in order to 'punch above its weight' when competing with other powers for influence in the post-Soviet space, and preserve certain Soviet era patterns of relations. It is not the focus of this study, but it is to be hoped that the framework will prove useful for researchers in other former imperial polities in future.

The main purpose of presented research was to identify changes in levels and patterns of fertility during the period of rapid economic growth in Kazakhstan (1999-2008). Particular attention was devoted to differentiation of fertility according to the type of settlement (urban/rural) and ethnicity. These leading attributes were completed by birth parity which helped to examine and explain the nature of some principal differences in reproductive behaviour among women living in rural and urban areas as well as belonging to selected major ethnic groups of Kazakhstan. Presented results clearly demonstrate principal increase of the overall intensity of fertility, partially due to mass realization of the births postponed during the 1990s. Their realization not only contributed to reproductive process intensification but also principally influenced different fertility patterns. The initial age structure of fertility faced both-sided ageing, differences among ethnoses and both types of settlement in many respects deepened. Situation observed in the year 2008 or in some cases in the year 2006 was labeled as transitional since many structural changes have not finished yet and some of them have only just started. It is suggested that particular identified trends could also represent a part of global changes in...

Reproductive behavior and its pattern in the South Kazakhstan region Abstract This study is focused on reproductive behavior issues in the South Kazakhstan region over the period from 1999 to 2010. The main objective is to contribute to the scientific cognition of reproductive attitudes, intentions and its realization among South Kazakhstani couples. The analysis is based on data collected for couples in the survey "Reproductive behavior of a family of Kazakhstan" held in the year 2007. In addition to that, trends in population development and impact of recent socio-economic changes on reproductive behavior in the selected region are studied. Differences in age, sex, ethnicity, place of residence as well as religious affiliation, educational attainment and respondents' incomes are considered in data analysis. The results of fertility decomposition method showed, that recent increase in fertility was predominantly caused by the factor of age-specific fertility rate. Factors of urban-rural difference and birth order were not significant. With regard to reproductive attitudes, intentions and its realization it was found that reproductive preferences among South Kazakhstani couples were devoted to a large family, while their reproductive intentions were focused on two-three children at most. Keywords:...

Une nouvelle spécification de la distance à la frontière est proposée en termes de barrières à l'adoption dans la diffusion technologique de Nelson-Phelps. Des coûts élevés liés à l'adoption technologique limitent le processus de rattrapage de la frontière mondiale. La nouvelle forme de la productivité, renforcée par l'évidence empirique, permet de modéliser les régimes multiples de convergence vers les points stationnaires. La performance impressionnante de l'Asie du sud montre qu'il existe un lien fort entre une augmentation de la force de travail avec une éducation professionnelle (V) par rapport à celle avec une éducation générale (G) et leur somme (taille de l'éducation secondaire). La littérature récente présente une évidence empirique mentionnant la tendance à la hausse du ratio de l'éducation professionnelle à l'éducation générale aux pays avec les revenus moyens. Cela renforce considérablement l'importance de l'éducation secondaire dans l'adoption technologique et permettrait d'appliquer la théorie de la croissance moderne aux pays en transition. Un modèle est proposé en vue d'analyser les interrelations entre le ratio (V/G) et la taille de l'éducation secondaire et les directions dans lesquelles ils interagissent. Finalement, le concept de Lucas est revisité pour montrer que l'éducation secondaire s'ajuste à l'adoption technologique. Par conséquent, le ratio V/G pourrait être utilisé à la place du taux de scolarisation secondaire dans le modèle de Nelson-Phelps afin de rétablir les liens avec la productivité dans les recherches empiriques. Un potentiel de rattrapage à long terme est analysé avec un modèle d'équilibre général pour le Kazakhstan. Ainsi, la croissance du progrès technique, mesuré en termes des barrières à l'adoption technologique, montre que l'économie, tout d'abord, converge vers le premier point stationnaire, déterminé de façon endogène par l'interaction entre les barrières à l'adoption technologique avec la productivité.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's Kazakhstan experienced a socio-economic transition from a socialist economy to a free market economy and was challenged with building a newly independent state. In pursuit of fulfilling strategic nationwide tasks, the government undertook multidimensional measures in all spheres. However, in order to implement such profound changes and keep up with globalization, the newly independent state found itself in a position where there was a burning need for a serious update in knowledge and skills in all fields. In light of the National State Conception of Education Development of 2005 (NSCED), higher education in Kazakhstan is viewed as the most fundamental liaison between academia, research and innovation in industry and business of the country. Integration of these three components represents the concept of a national innovation system that will allow Kazakhstan to establish successfully its own competitive advantage in the global arena. Therefore, the higher education faculty of Kazakhstan becomes the driving force in fulfilling such grand tasks as relating research to practice, as well as increasing the knowledge, skills, and capacities of young specialists and researchers for a future sustainable society. In other words, there is a need to determine the current status of higher education faculty development which may then serve as a basis for a comprehensive approach and enable the compliance process with the Bologna international standards of education to be expedited. For the purpose of this study, a qualitative research methodology was used whereby the researcher was the primary research tool who interviewed 20 faculty members and university administrators from two large universities of national status in Kazakhstan. The data collection tools employed were semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis and field notes. Since the nature of this phenomenological study is exploratory and descriptive, it was considered holistically and based on interpretation and analysis of all study participants combined. Moreover, the phenomenon under study is complex due to a dynamic interaction and interdependence of multiple HRD levels; and consequently, it was viewed through the contexts of international relationships, the country's broad societal transformations, and its organizational and individual levels. The research findings indicate that there is no systematic and consistent approach to faculty development in the area of higher education in Kazakhstan. The majority of current faculty development and any professional development activities tend to have a spontaneous character without implementation of a thorough faculty needs task analysis or performance evaluation. The faculty as social subjects with different socio-cultural identities is currently in the process of constructing a new academic identity based on updated social values, beliefs, mentality and work styles. In the case of successfully updating professional expertise and higher education policy implementation, the faculty will constitute a group of highly educated experts and professionals who are capable of providing the younger generation with a high quality education according to international standards and conducting intensive research that will connect the theory and practice through real applications in various industries.

In this thesis, the purpose is to analyze the path that the nation building process in Kazakhstan has been following in the post-Soviet period through examining the various policies implemented and the official rhetoric and discourses stated by the Kazakh policymakers. The ethno-symbolist approach of Anthony D. Smith and the views of Walker Connor and Willfried Spohn on nationalism and national identity have been utilized in the analysis of the research. The Soviet Nationalities Policy is examined to be able to better understand the post-Soviet nation-building, because the policies implemented under this comprehensive project, which had been outlined by the Bolsheviks, had deep political, cultural, demographic and linguistic impacts on the process in Kazakhstan. The ethnic situation has also been laid down in order to highlight under which ethnic circumstances the nation building process has been taking place. After analyzing the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the post-Soviet policies about language, education, employment, culture and national symbols, the statements of the President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the move of capital, this study claims that post-Soviet nation building process and nationalism in Kazakhstan have both ethnic and civic components whereby the nation building process in Kazakhstan is a more ethnic process than it is civic.

This dissertation aims to discuss the incorporation of the &ldquo / nationalist&rdquo / Kazak intellectuals of Alash Orda to the Soviet Socialist Republics and their role in the establishment of the Kazak ASSR. In the course of events they acted first together with Russian liberal democrats, then they sought to establish a national government and fought against the Bolsheviks, but after 1920 they chose to stay in the USSR and join the modernization process of their homeland alongside the Bolsheviks. In the mainstream academic discourse the local leaders in the republics of the USSR are generally considered as passive victims of the Soviet policies. The members of the Kazak national movement of Alash Orda are also neglected as weak political figures after they had accepted the Soviet rule. But they continued their struggle for enlightening the Kazak people in 1920s. Their collaboration with the Bolsheviks was concomitant to their motives of modernizing the Kazaks. Their role in the Soviet Kazakstan did not come to an end after their acceptance of the Soviet sovereignty but it continued. My argument is that the struggle of the members of Alash Orda was in continuity with their program before the revolution, and their cooperation with the Bolsheviks was a way to realize their objectives, and it opened a sphere for them to have a role in the formation of the Kazak ASSR.

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