From Soviet Modernization to Post–Soviet Transformation: Understanding Marriage and Fertility Dynamics in Uzbekistan

Abstract

In this article we analyse the dynamics of marriage and childbearing in Uzbekistan through the prism of the recent socioeconomic and political history of that country. After becoming an independent nation in 1991, Uzbekistan abandoned the Soviet modernization project and aspired to set out on a radically different course of economic, social, and political development. We argue, however, that not only independence but also the preceding period of perestroika reforms (1985-91) had a dramatic effect on social conditions and practices and, consequently, the demographic behaviour of the country's population. Using data from the 1996 Uzbekistan Demographic and Health Survey we apply event-history analysis to examine changes in the timing of entry into first marriage, first and second births over four periods: two periods of pre-perestroika socialism, the perestroika years, and the period since independence. We investigate the factors that influenced the timing of these events in each of the four periods among Uzbeks, the country's eponymous and largest ethnic group, and among Uzbekistan's urban population. In general, our results point to a dialectic combination of continuity and change in Uzbekistan's recent demographic trends, which reflect the complex and contradictory nature of broader societal transformations in that and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Through Civil War, Food Crisis and Drought: Trends in Fertility and Nuptiality in Post-Soviet Tajikistan

“…1). Third, in terms of the pattern of change, just as in Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan (Agadjanian and Makarova 2003) and ex-Soviet Europe (for example, Perelli-Harris 2005), fertility decline in Tajikistan in the early 1990s was driven by reductions at higher orders while first order rates were stable. This article also has some new insights.…”

Reproduction in upheaval: Ethnic-specific fertility responses to societal turbulence in Kazakhstan

“…Previous research on Kazakhstan and other Central Asian societies, albeit of limited scope, has furnished evidence of considerable and enduring ethnocultural differences in such matters as family formation, parity progression, and recourse to induced abortion (Agadjanian and Qian 1997;Agadjanian 1999Agadjanian , 2002Agadjanian and Makarova 2003). However, in the context of multiethnic post-Soviet Central Asia, within-country differences in fertility level and reproductive behaviour could be linked not only to group-specific demographic history but also to the unique political and economic stakes of different population segments.…”

Second and Third Births in Armenia and Moldova: An Economic Perspective of Recent Behaviour and Current Preferences

“…Neyer and Andersson (2008) highlight the analytical usefulness of studying cases in which many similarities are offset by a major difference in context. In the cases of Armenia and Moldova, both had similar economic and 1 See, for example, Bulgaria: Bühler and Philipov (2005), Philipov et al (2006), Philipov and Jasilioniene (2007); Czech Republic: Kantorová (2004), Klasen and Launov (2006), Sobotka (2003); Hungary: Oláh and Fratczak (2004), Philipov et al (2006), Spéder (2006; Poland: Bühler and Fratczak (2007), Kotowska et al (2008); Romania: Muresan andHoem (2009), Rotariu (2006); Slovakia: Potančoková et al (2008); Slovenia : Stropnik and Šircelj (2008 (Katus 2000;Klesment and Puur 2010), Lithuania (Stankuniene and Jasilioniene 2008) and in a few Central Asian Republics (Agadjanian et al 2008;Agadjanian and Makarova 2003).…”