From coal to cool: Reordering nature in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

The article studies the transformation of a Kyrgyz coal-mining village into a tourism destination. By combining political ecology research approaches with concepts borrowed from Actor Network Theory (ANT), I attempt to show how nature-based tourism development contributes to a reordering of nature in certain ways rather than others. Supported by my empirical material, I suggest that this reordering of nature makes certain realities emerge, while others submerge. However, while some orderings of natures appear to be representing reality, it does not necessarily rule out multiple understandings of how nature "ought to look" or be used.