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This talk is about citizenship under globalized governance, and how people in urban spaces maneuver overlapping authorities to advance their common interests. It shows how citizens can affect change in the policy implementation process by creating spaces and opportunities for political participation, while at the same time staying safe and free from surveillance in settings of political repression. The comparative case study of political participation in urban development politics in three cities in Kazakhstan shows that despite the centralized and authoritarian nature of Kazakhstan's government, there are variations in governance within a centralized sovereign state. This talk offers new ways to think creatively about political activism and collective agency by describing novel, citizen-created modes of effective political participation in a non-democratic setting.

Light lunch will be provided.  

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