Untangling the reproduction of gender inequalities in the Uzbek economic transition

Library Seminar Room 6, The Open University, Walton Hall Campus, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

Open University International Development Seminar Series: Untangling the reproduction of gender inequalities in the Uzbek economic transition

Presented by: Dr Lorena Lombardozzi

Date: 28 November 2018

Venue: Library Seminar Room 6

Time: 12:00-14:00 (Lunch: 12:00pm – 12:30pm)

Abstract: Despite the important international political economy work on capitalist market transition, its gender dimension remains underexplored. Marketization often changes the configuration of intra-household division of labour and distribution of assets. Income increase and assets accumulation can extend the space of women’s bargaining and purchasing power but also expose them to dynamics of ‘expropriation’ (Folbre, 1994). Nonetheless, women’s work is fundamental for the survival of the household, particularly through management of household’s assets and services. Furthermore, women assume an important role in the process of commercialisation for instance by selling agro-commodities. Gender is therefore a crucial analytical lens to comprehensively understand processes and outcomes of market transition (Angeles and Hill, 2009; O’Laughlin, 1996). In Uzbekistan, empirical evidence shows a clear gender bias in the way women access land, means of production, and jobs which are shaped both by changing state policies and by economic local dynamics (Kandiyoti 1998, 2003). This raises issues around the recognition and classification of women’s work in society and its rewards. This article takes a feminist political economy perspective in the analysis of primary data including a farmers’ survey in Samarkand. The paper first investigates the gender dimension of how food is socially produced, accessed, prepared and redistributed within the household. Second, it argues that the gendered tensions around who manages and controls the use of assets, responsibilities of reproductive work and incomes shape labour relations and the dynamics of market transition. Finally, this paper contributes to the development of feminist political economies of work by untangling the underlining gender inequalities linked to market transition in the Global South.

Bio: Lorena joined the OU as a Lecturer in Economics (FASS) in January 2018. She completed her PhD thesis in Economics at SOAS, University of London (fully funded by SOAS Economics dpt.) with a title ‘A nexus between the role of the state, market transition and food consumption: The case of Uzbekistan’. Lorena holds a MSc from SOAS in Political Economy of Development. She received a previous Masters in Development Economics from University La Sapienza of Rome, Italy. Before returning to academia Lorena worked as development economist in Latina America in 2014, in Uzbekistan for the regional office of UNODC in Central Asia from 2010 to 2012, and between 2007 and 2010 with the European Commission and the Italian Ministry of Foreign affairs in the field of development economics, trade and environmental policy. Her research interests relate to the theoretical debates on political economy, inequality, growth and distribution as well as to applied areas of international development (Central Asia in particular), gender and feminist economics, labour, work and wellbeing, agro-industrial policy and innovation, food system and commodity value chains, and research methods in Economics.  

Event is free to attend, please register via Eventbrite.