Ferments, fences, futures : Ecologies of transformation in rural Mongolia
BP2-STS
- Reichhardt, Björn ORCID Université de Fribourg
- Fribourg (Switzerland), [2025]
1 ressource en ligne (247 pages) ; 1 fichier pdf
PhD: Université de Fribourg (Suisse), 13.06.2024
Social Anthropology
Mongolia
Multispecies Ethnography
Pastoralism
Development
Infrastructure
Land
Fences
Milk
Fermentation
Future
STS
Post-Socialism
English
This dissertation examines ecologies of transformation in post-socialist rural Mongolia, where distinct forms of environmental wealth, such as milk, land, and water, are transformed into resources. With a specific focus on Khatgal village and Khövsgöl Lake National Park in the country’s north, the study explores how these transformations unfold through development, conservation, land privatization, and milk fermentation and how rural households navigate neoliberal reforms and chronic uncertainty within shifting domains of property, infrastructure, and ecology.
Central to the study is the concept of khöröngö, a multifaceted term encompassing fermentation, capital, and property. As both an agent of and subject to transformation, khöröngö represents diverse forms of wealth and processes of growth shaped through social, economic, and biological relationships. Three key translations of khöröngö are examined: first, the transformation of nature into natural resources for infrastructure and eco-tourism; second, land privatization and fence-building as processes leading to both wealth accumulation and socioeconomic vulnerability; and third, milk fermentation as a biosocial practice that generates value through multispecies interactions. These translations reveal how development initiatives aim to convert situated wealth into profit within capitalist and state-driven frameworks.
The analysis culminates in a discussion of future possibilities, contrasting capitalist linear progress with cyclical, care-based approaches rooted in everyday life, particularly among pastoral herder women. The dissertation presents a critical counter-narrative to dominant paradigms of progress and crisis in Mongolia’s post-socialist transformation.
Central to the study is the concept of khöröngö, a multifaceted term encompassing fermentation, capital, and property. As both an agent of and subject to transformation, khöröngö represents diverse forms of wealth and processes of growth shaped through social, economic, and biological relationships. Three key translations of khöröngö are examined: first, the transformation of nature into natural resources for infrastructure and eco-tourism; second, land privatization and fence-building as processes leading to both wealth accumulation and socioeconomic vulnerability; and third, milk fermentation as a biosocial practice that generates value through multispecies interactions. These translations reveal how development initiatives aim to convert situated wealth into profit within capitalist and state-driven frameworks.
The analysis culminates in a discussion of future possibilities, contrasting capitalist linear progress with cyclical, care-based approaches rooted in everyday life, particularly among pastoral herder women. The dissertation presents a critical counter-narrative to dominant paradigms of progress and crisis in Mongolia’s post-socialist transformation.
- Faculty
- Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Anthropology, ethnography
- Notes
-
- Bibliographie
- License
- CC BY
- Open access status
- diamond
- Identifiers
-
- SWISSCOVERY 991172342561005501
- DOI 10.51363/unifr.lth.2025.041
- URN urn:nbn:ch:rero-002-122791
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/331756
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