Бидний тухай
Багш ажилтан
The pandemic has restricted mobility around the world since Covid-19 started. However, in Mongolia, a non-traditional and distinctive kind of livestock movement was (re)emerged during that time. Pastoralists hired coal trucks to load the livestock and moved from several hundred to thousand kilometres for good pastureland. Traditionally, scholarships on pastoralism in Inner Asia discuss more the restricted or less mobility of pastoralists due to government policy, environmental conditions, and social transformation. As well as the literature focus on pastoralists’ vulnerability front of the dzud disaster. Based on ethnographic materials which were collected in Bayankhongor Province in Mongolia, this paper argues that the movement on the coal truck is not only a new type of mobility but also another form of risk mitigation technique of the dzud (winter disaster) impact on mobile pastoralists life.
Scholarship on pastoralists in Inner Asia mostly focuses on natural environment matters such as how herders follow good grass, water source or affected by natural hazards. However, beyond this 'traditional discussion' focusing on environmental determinism, there is a certain need to study social or social media environment themes among herders in Mongolia. Not only due to the Covid-19 lockdown and post-pandemic situation, but also for many other reasons, mobile herders actively use digital technologies such as social media, video calls and smart phones in everyday life including for decision making about where to move. Based on fieldwork in Bayankhongor and Bulgan, this paper focuses on the more-than-natural environment to understand contemporary herding and advance new knowledge on modern mobilities in Mongolia. By exploring these relationships in the context of encampment (otor) during the dry summer (gan) as environmental difficulties, this paper sets new directions in research on rural life to inform contexts beyond Mongolia.
Дэлхий нийтийг хамарсан Ковид-19 цар тахал улс орнуудын хөдөлмөрийн зах зээлийг цочроож, хүнд ба хөнгөн үйлдвэрлэл, үйлчилгээний салбар төдийгүй худалдан авалт, борлуулалт, тээвэрлэлт, хөрөнгө оруулалт зэрэг эдийн засгийн харилцаанд оролцогч бүхий л талуудад хүндээр тусч байгаа төдийгүй өрхийн амьжиргаанд сөргөөр нөлөөлж байна. Тус судалгаа нь Ковид–19 цар тахлын онцгой нөхцөл байдлын үед зорилтод бүлгийн өрхийн амьжиргаанд тулгарсан бэрхшээлийн нөлөөг буруулахад Хүүхдийн мөнгөн тэтгэмж, Хүнс тэжээлийн дэмжлэг, Нийгмийн халамжийн тэтгэвэр, тэтгэмжийн мөнгө яаж тус дэм болсон, Засгийн газрын дээрх бодлого, арга хэмжээ зорьсон зорилтдоо хүрсэн эсэхийг судлах зорилготой. Ковид-19 ийн үед Монгол улс бүх хүүхдэд ямар нэгэн нөхцөлгүйгээр бэлэн мөнгө өгч байгаа, Хүүхдийн мөнгөн тэтгэмжийн хэмжээг 100 мянган төгрөгт хүргэж нэмэгдүүлсэн нь богино хугацаанд цар тахалын үеийн хүндрэл бэрхшээлийг даван туулахад үр нөлөөтэй байсан төдийгүй урт хугацаанд тэгш бус байдлыг бууруулах, хүний хөгжлийг хангахад нь тодорхой хувь нэмэр оруулж байна. Хүнсний эрхийн бичиг өрхийн амьжиргаанд тодорхой хэмжээнд эерэг нөлөө үзүүлж байгаа ч чанарын судалгааны үр дүнгээс харахад хүнсний эрхийн бичгийн мөнгөн дүнгийн нэмэгдэл нь цар тахалын үеийн өрхийн орлогын бууралт, өргөн хэрэглээний барааны үнийн дүнгийн өсөлтийг төдийлөн гүйцэж чадахгүй байсан тул хүнсний эрхийн бичгийн үнийн дүнг жил бүрийн инфляцийн түвшинтэй уялдуулан нэмэгдүүлэх шаардлагатай нь харагдлаа.
In contemporary Mongolia—a country with 29 years’ history of international development policy—the conventional interpretation regarding the oppression of and liberation from the Soviet regime is no longer valid for understanding its politics of cultural heritage. Today, development projects and associated environmental, social and cultural assessments play a central role in safeguarding cultural heritage. Therefore, alternative interpretations are necessary to comprehend current and further processes of cultural heritage politics. This paper introduces two case studies of new cultural heritage politics involving Mongolia’s two ‘megaprojects’: Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper mining, and River Eg hydroelectric station.
Since its emergence in the mid-1990s, unauthorized small-scale gold mining—widely known as “ninja mining”—has grown to become a central element of Mongolia’s informal economy, engaging tens of thousands of people in seasonal, unregulated, and occasionally dangerous labor. In this paper we set out to show that the story of ninja mining is illustrative of the wider transformation of political economy that Mongolia has experienced, in which a de facto public resource was created in the wake of the collapsed state socialist economy, only to be progressively privatized and enclosed by increasingly powerful mining company interests. We examine the implementation of a development project aimed at providing sustainable livelihoods for those engaged in unauthorized mining. Drawing upon anthropological critiques of development, we explore the ways in which the project, while arguably succeeding in its own terms, failed to meet the expectations of the miners involved. Committed as it was to working within the new private property regime for land introduced by “neoliberal” reforms, the project constructed the ninja “problem” in terms of a lack of formalization and training. It was ultimately unable to address the fundamental issues of property relations and access to resources that lie at the heart of the ninja phenomenon.
Mongolians not only perform capitalist activity in everyday life but also form their own capitalist philosophies and concepts. Since the mid-1990s, Mongolian intellectuals, including professors, translators and columnists, have translated dozens of procapitalist books from English and Russian into Mongolian. Some have established NGOs, student clubs, and foundations to promote capitalism by organizing lectures, as well as summer schools for the public. This article explores how these processes contribute to the understanding of capitalism and Mongolia’s current socio-economic situation. It ethnographically demonstrates the persistence of evolutionist thinking in the making of capitalism and development in Mongolia. It explores how procapitalist intellectuals tried to find ways to outgrow a perceived period of zerleg kapitalizm (wild capitalism) to reach jinhene kapitalizm (genuine capitalism). It examines the implications of these intellectual frameworks, exploring how the outgrowing of these perceived ‘developmental stages’ is often considered to be a ‘solution’ for Mongolia’s development.
