Doctoral School in Social Sciences

This dissertation explores the development of a human capital concept that is here referred to as “green footprint competence” among workers and members of organizations that position themselves as “green”, “organic”, or “environmental solutions providers”. The research
contributes to the studies of social and environmental change by analysing three aspects of this change: a) the institutionalisation of the global green and low-carbon discourses as values, norms, and discursive practices within organizations in Kyrgyzstan and China; b) the
emergence of the green organizational identity; c) and the development of the new competences for the climate change adaptation and mitigation along with the “green identity” of workers and members of greening organizations. The key argument formed as a result of this research is that the development of standards for measuring and reporting of the Personal and Organizational consumption of Earth Resources (i.e.,. personal and organizational carbon and/or ecological footprints), requires a more democratic and inherently more participative approach through developing green competences of organizations’ workers. Would the democratization of the carbon emissions
MRV (measurement, reporting, and verification) make the emissions figures (reported and used in investment and trade decisions) more reliable and grounded? Does not the tendency of organizations to advance performative interpretations of their environmental and social
responsibilities in the quest of staying competitive and enact greenness actually prevent environmental conduct that reduces carbon? Often the organizational infrastructure and incentives are set in such a way that it discourages the pursuit of de-carbonization. Instead “being green” becomes a negotiable and a transient state, in which reported greenness is a result of a multitude of interpretations and data bending in order to fit in the new green economy club or to become if not the leader of de-carbonization then at least a member of a supply chain of a “green” industry leader. The genuine belief in the virtues of being green and acting green becomes negligible in value as company leaders face the large suppliers or partners in the value chain. The large members of value chains had negotiated their “greenness” through an enactment of the environmental conduct in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting and Carbon compliance reporting to fit the bill of the global financial communities. While at the top of this “green” pyramid are the global development and investment banks that are in a rush to reap the benefits of the emerging green economy trough formulating “green” or “sustainable” requirements and regulation, within their global “business and economy clubs”.

The prevailing green and sustainable discourses today are produced by the global green economy “guidelines-making clubs”. In this article, a method is proposed that identifies the vehicle for these discouses’ acceptance and enactment in organizations, through corporate green identity projection. Thus, the tracing of the diffusion of “green and sustainable” discourses all the way to the formulation of organizational competences and their practical embedding is demonstrated. The discourses on climate change adaptation and mitigation builds on important metrics (i.e., the carbon emissions measurement, reporting and verification), which are involved in the construction of the field of “green economy” and the pathways of institutionalisation of green norms and values (i.e., the green and low-carbon norms and values). The method here takes the construction of green organizations through the translation of global green discourses. The method also bridges two fields of study: science and technology studies and the studies of institutions.

This paper proposes an analysis of internal migrants as a social category whose qualities and historic tendencies could make it a new middle class. These qualities include their entrepreneurial potential and increasing role as producers and consumers of goods and services, a group that is interested in stability and steady economic growth.
In Bishkek, where more than one third of the population of Kyrgyzstan resides, these internal migrants have changed the urban environment by joining the urban workforce that provides goods and services, as well as becoming consumers and voters. They continue being the most visible and effective actors in changing economic, social and, eventually, political practices in the Kyrgyz capital. This policy paper draws mainly on the cooperation between the development consultancy DialectICON, public foundation Erayim, and the Bishkek mayor’s office. This was possible during research and training projects called "Opportunities for Legalising Small Businesses of Self-Help Housing Districts of Bishkek" (April-June 2008).

This report on mapping the diaspora organizations of migrants abroad and of individual experts residing outside of Kyrgyzstan was aimed at understanding the characteristics of the Kyrgyz migrants abroad and their capacity to self-organize into diasporal unions and organizations with aims of improving cooperation (formal and informal) with their home regions and country, as well as to achieve economic, social, and cultural gains. The diaspora's capacity for investing various resources back to Kyrgyzstan was also assessed indirectly, to complement additional parallel case study collection published jointly by The Roza Otunbayeva Initiative (Public Foundation) and IOM Kyrgyzstan in 2015.

This study aims to increase understanding of how and to what extent migration in the context of climate change and environmental degradation has been mainstreamed in national policies, laws and strategies in Kyrgyzstan. The methodology for the mapping exercise consists of two major steps. First, it identifies relevant policies, laws and strategies in Kyrgyzstan related to climate change, environment, disaster risk reduction (DRR), sustainable development, agriculture, rural development, urban development, gender, migration and remittances. Second, it analyses these documents for content about the MECC nexus. The study links Kyrgyzstan’s policy landscape with global approaches to the MECC nexus – for example, the Twenty-first Session of the Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in November 2015, which mandated the creation of the Task Force on Displacement (TFD) as part of the work programme of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts. The study also analyses the extent to which Kyrgyzstan’s existing policies, laws and strategies are aligned with the recommendations of the TFD.