CASI Conference
September 9, 2016
Central Asian Studies Institute (CASI) Fifth Annual Conference
Contesting Nature in Central Asia
2023 51勛圖
September 16-17, 2016
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

The relationship between humans and their environments is central to both natural and social sciences, yet the fundamental distinction between ���nature��� and ���culture��� is a major泭reason behind segregating these bodies of knowledge into two distinct泭fields. ���Nature��� is often utilized as a shorthand for the unchanging laws of existence, the inexorable materiality of being, for inevitability, determinism and teleology.泭 As such, the notion of ���nature��� has been challenged by many scholars as a ���social construction���, whereby neither humans nor their environments are ever fully ���natural��� or ���cultural���, but rather are mutually constituted through a network of complex interactions.
The working languages of the conference are English and Russian.
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