New Media and Political Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Young People in Eurasia confronts the sociological problem of the usage of new media by young people in political participation, particularly in Eurasian countries. The author explains how and why new media promotes political participation among young people in Russia and Kazakhstan. While there has been no shortage of analysis about the interlinkage between new media and political participation, this research is different-it explains the mechanisms and reasons of new-media-assisted political participation. This book develops two models-theoretical and New-Media-Led Political Participation-that better explain how new-media use translates into political participation. These models are of paramount importance for the study of new-media-led political participation, which builds in-depth knowledge to the research area from a post-communist perspective. This book not only sheds light on the ways in which, and the reasons why, new media contributes to the nature of political participation, but also explains why citizens use new media in their political participation. The author sets his sights on what occurs downstream, i.e., not in the minds of political leaders and/or well-known oppositionists but on the ground in specific contexts such as cities, towns, and villages by young people.
Yerkebulan Sairambay is currently a research fellow and assistant professor at Suleyman Demirel University (Kaskelen, Kazakhstan) and a research associate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1: The Study of New Media and Political Participation Chapter 2: New Media and Political Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan Chapter 3: New Media Political Participation Models Chapter 4: How Young People Use New Media in Political Participation Chapter 5: The Role of Civic Engagement in New-Media-Led Political Participation Chapter 6: Why Young People Use New Media in Political Participation Conclusions References Index About the Author
For scholars today with one eye on current events in Eurasia, they might do very well, so to speak, to have the other eye fixed on this rising young researcher, Yerkebulan Sairambay, the author of this present volume. This is a truly fascinating work which opens out innovative aspects of this under-studied area. Sairambay is a bi-lingual scholar (Russian and Kazakh), with an immaculate track record in terms of the quality and freshness of his research, and without doubt, this book will become essential reading for all those with an interest in this field. Sairambay does not put a foot wrong from start to finish, and he is to be warmly congratulated for this new achievement. -- Margaret Tejerizo, University of Glasgow This book significantly increases our understanding of the youth and their new media usage in the post-Soviet space, especially in Kazakhstan and Russia. It also greatly expands our knowledge of political mobilisation dynamics in these settings. -- Ayse Zarakol, University of Cambridge
