Postscript: Dude Where’s My Theory?

During the development of this project we often spoke with colleagues and friends who displayed a palpable excitement that we were pursing an attempt to instigate greater theorization within the study of Central Asian politics. As noted in the introduction, while our utopian hope would have been to produce groundbreaking theoretical inventions in the study of the social world from the position of the central corner, we were acutely aware that such breakthroughs are rare and difficult to achieve. Nevertheless, the contributions in this volume have demonstrated that Central Asia is a rich lode to begin greater theorization regarding abstract political concepts such as legitimation, ideology, power and the state. And at the end of our journey, we dare say that the collective results of this collaboration with scholars from, in and outside the region does mark a gradual development of theorization and Central Asia. Moreover, both collectively and individually the chapters in this volume provide new theoretical insights for thinking about, studying and understanding the five Central Asian republics. We hope that what has been set forth in these pages is the ignition, the catalyst, which opens up future pathways for further theoretically reflective research on the region, and hopefully some lessons for political theorization, which illustrates the incremental advances which can stem from studying regions of the world often falsely perceived as marginal, small and on the periphery.