Yernazar Kumar | Nazarbayev University (original) (raw)

Papers by Yernazar Kumar

KAZNPU, 2021

This paper analyzes several aspects concerning the national issues of rape and sexual harassment ... more This paper analyzes several aspects concerning the national issues of rape and sexual harassment incidences in the context of Kazakhstan via a discourse analysis approach of social media activist movements. The article touches upon crucial social media movements, such as '#MeTooTalgo', 'NeMolchi.kz' or '#OrtashaEmes', which all emerged after the 2016 incident with the rape case in a Talgo Train, causing eventually an upward rising tendency for awareness-raising social media campaigns across the country. Alongside that, the paper also provides insight into the discussion about the societal influence of the contextual conservative patriarchal state on women, the factors causing women to become victims of sexual and physical abuse as well the power of the social media as a tool and platform for catalyzing the enraged voices of women into influential instruments for societal changes. On top of that, this paper also looks at how the movements of social media activism have influenced government decisions and law amendments in the country towards tightening legislations. The paper follows a discourse analysis research methodology, where only secondary sources of information are used and referred to. In conclusion, the significance of this paper is that it tries to enlighten and bring forth one of the societal problems that women and under-aged girls in Kazakhstan face, and which has yet to be accepted as a "societal problem" by the society itself. Hence, despite the conservative regime with a still developing but much promising civic society, social media has shown to be 'a free fighting space' for those who want to voice their problems and for those who want to be heard.

Journal of psychological and social sciences at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KAZNU) , 2021

The requirement for parental consent for conducting abortion for minors has always been a highly ... more The requirement for parental consent for conducting abortion for minors has always been a highly debatable and controversial ethical issue. In terms of ethical debate, there are manifolded 'pros' and 'cons' of liberal legislation on abortion for the underage girls. Worldwide experience has revealed that the variations in the laws as well as the arguments for and against abortion for teenagers differ depending on geographical location, ethnicity, religion, and cultural peculiarities. This paper juxtaposes arguments in favor for and against parental consent, as well as neutral arguments neither for nor against, narrowing down the issue to the context of Kazakhstan. At the same time, the paper also uses ethical stances of virtuous and utilitarian aspects for argumentative purposes and touching upon the aspects of morality. In conclusion, the paper argues in favor for mitigating the access for underage girls in Kazakhstan on a legislative level and suggests that Kazakhstan should reconsider as well as readapt its regulation and laws on abortion in order to maintain health, happiness, utility, and reproductive abilities of future-to-be mothers. Thus, a law mitigating the access to abortion for youngsters could make a huge positive impact for both underage girls as well as the society to reach an agreeable consensus between the two.

Journal of Pedagogy, Psychology and Sociology of Eurasian National University (ENU) in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan; Vol. 134, Issue No.1 , 2021

Public awareness and communication with civil society in times of crisis, especially during the c... more Public awareness and communication with civil society in times of crisis, especially during the currently ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has become of great importance to many governments, the media, the public and other crucial government stakeholders. Problems of disinformation along with the low levels of social trust towards state institutions have challenged many nation-state governments and brought them also at the same new opportunities and ways to solve their domestic problems. In this article, these particularly two issues are addressed by analyzing the decision-making process of states and in the context of top-down and bottom-up approaches. As a case study, official COVID-19 statistics and official factchecking web portals of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Russia were evaluated and considered. Social
projects such as those of BizBirgemiz and MyVmeste were also taken analyzed and included in our comparative analysis in this paper. This article is divided into four parts. The first part concerns the introduction section. The second section introduces, describes and studies the case studies this paper will look at. In the third section, the discussion and analysis of the case
studies follow. Last but not the least, the fourth section concludes our analysis with additional policy recommendations provided. Our analysis has shown that in almost all cases the topdown approach dominates for both countries of Russia and Kazakhstan, except for the so-called initiated social project MyVmeste, which followed rather a bottom-up-led path. Despite that, the
paper shows us how crisis situations with the COVID-19 pandemic have become both catalysts for solving specific societal problems, such as disinformation issue and a source for detecting insufficient policy interventions, particularly in the cyber eralm.

Eurasian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KAZNU) in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Vol. 7, Issue No.2, 2021

This paper analyzes the role of social media in fighting radical extremism in Kyrgyzstan by looki... more This paper analyzes the role of social media in fighting radical extremism in Kyrgyzstan by looking at the pilot project conducted by Search for Common Ground Organization that was initiated from 2016 to 2017. The pilot project was aimed at the youth population in order to raise the awareness for issues of radical recruitment risks and create a social media platform for public discourses about radicalism problems. Firstly, the paper introduced the sources and reasons for the emergence of radicalism problems in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here, the triangular rise of nationalism, religious ignorance and secularist beliefs were discussed alongside the erosion of education system and the issue of ideological vacuum. All this resulted eventually in the social marginalization of the youth and the society overall. Secondly, we analyzed the reasons of why terrorists and radical movements targeted the youth via the social media platforms and discussed in detail how the social media campaign could help in fighting against it via the distribution of various counter-extremist information sources and tools. Thirdly, the problems and limitations of the project were discussed, where matters such as the difficulty on recognizing the sources of factors enabling the causes of radicalism or criticism towards effectiveness of the use of positive counter-radical messages have been mentioned. Fourthly, the paper draws lessons from this project for the Central Asian region in terms of its importance, relevance and applicability in different contextual environments. In conclusion, this paper showed on the one hand the vulnerability of the social media to the influence of radical ideas and ideologies, but also on the other hand the potential of the social media as a tool to counter the radical movements and protect the youth from social marginalization, risk of radical recruitments and manipulation.

Journal of International Affairs and Politics of the National Pedagogical University named after Abai (KAZNPU) in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Vol. 65, Issue No.2, 2021

This paper conducts a comparative analysis between Israel and Central Asia with a focus on the co... more This paper conducts a comparative analysis between Israel and Central Asia with a focus on the country of Kazakhstan in terms of sources and scope of the threat of terrorism, their specialized counterterrorist units and different counter-terrorism strategies ranging from the role of the community, media, financial and local legislative approaches. The paper concludes with the highlights stating that states should not only fight militarily the threat of terrorism, but rather with smart, flexible and comprehensible whole-government approaches. This includes effective law enforcement measures, toughened laws, reforming trust-building measures through neighborhood policies and developing a strong nationhood. While on the one hand Israel has been in a war-ridden conflicts since gaining its independence, Kazakhstan on the other hand as a post-soviet state has a bit differing and complex issues to deal with that concern problems related to building a post-soviet political identity and creating a stable and effective bridge between a unified political and
comprehensive social response to the threat of terrorism.

Journal of Ecology of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KAZNU) in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Vol. 67, Issue No.2 , 2021

Kazakhstan has significant resources for the development of ecotourism, or also known as natureba... more Kazakhstan has significant resources for the development of ecotourism, or also known as naturebased tourism. Their nature is characterized by a high degree of environmentally rich biodiversity, flora,
fauna and wildlife, with many possessing unique landscapes and ecotourism facilities. National parks in
particular have the greatest potential for the development of eco-tourism, as a type of protected areas,
the main task are protection of ecosystems and regulation of territorial use for ecological, educational,
scientific, touristic and recreational purposes. In the academia, the study on ecotourism is dated to the
early 1970’s. However, the studies on ecotourism research in Kazakhstan have emerged only in the early
2000’s and still now lacks abundant specialized research output and research interest. In light of these
problems, this research paper sought to evaluate the literature on ecotourism studies in the context of
Kazakhstan and discuss the main findings by prominent Kazakhstani scholars. Firstly, thorough literature
review analysis of the evolution of ecotourism studies will be done. Here, we will look at its conceptual
emergence; historical importance, challenges and significance for the research community; previous
and current research focus; potential further research studies and the importance of studies on national
parks. And secondly, the paper discusses the characteristics of ecotourism destination in Kazakhstan,
the emergence of ecotourism as a scientific study among Kazakhstani scholars and its present development as well as future prospects of ecotourism studies. Our discussion and literature review will offer useful information for researchers in not only understanding the evolution of how ecotourism studies
have evolved over the time in the context of Kazakhstan, but also give them a thorough overview of the
current state of ecotourism industry. There is a significant research and information gap on the topic of
ecotourism study in Kazakhstan and this research aims to fill that gap.

Journal of Political and Social Sciences of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KAZNU) Vol. 76 Issue 2, 2021

The ransom dilemma problem all around the world raises not only moral concerns for the government... more The ransom dilemma problem all around the world raises not only moral concerns for the government, but also for the society as a whole in whether to save the kidnapped person or to do nothing against it. While the U.S. and U.K. deal with this according to its strict laws and regulations ruthlessly in
order to preserve the integrity of the society, the European Union deals it with a more flexible and is oriented toward a human-centered approach. This paper will try to analyze this ethical dilemma from three diverging viewpoints. These concern the consequentialist/utilitarian viewpoints and the deontological approach. While consequentialists support the argument that states ought to preserve the security of their citizens without giving in to the demands of terrorists for an exchange of the kidnapped person, deontologists on the other hand put human values and individual rights to the forefront and urges states to save people no matter what the circumstances they are in. Here, we will refer to the arguments presented
by ethicists such as Jeremy Bentham or John Stuart Mill as well as experts like Peter Singer. However, in terms of deontological approach it comes with caveats in arguments between Kantian absolutism approach in categorical imperative beliefs and Rossian intuitive prima facie duties approach. This paper serves the purpose of informing and enlightening readers on the ethical issues that ransom dilemma presents with a more informational-analytical standpoint. The rationale of our research paper lies within the fact that very little research has been conducted in regards to ethical approaches towards the aspects of ransom dilemma phenomenon. Hence, with this research paper, we would like to fill in this research gap and bring in something new and interesting within the studies on ethics.

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KAZNUU), 2021

This research is a case study of government involvement in academic research. In the case study, ... more This research is a case study of government involvement in academic research. In the case study, we analyzed what factors influence government involvement in academic research. Specifically, we scrutinized different factors such as language, citizenship, networking, age, and gender that could, to some extent, facilitate or complicate research cooperation between academia and government bodies. Though there are other universities with foreign professors, including KIMEP, SDU, KBTU, the number of foreigners in those universities is insignificant in comparison with NU, and the location of NU provides better access than others. We conducted an online survey among NU faculty, as well as several face-to-face interviews. The survey involved 47 respondents. The findings revealed that the most significant factors influencing government involvement in academic research are lack of proficiency in Russian and Kazakh, networking. The implications of this research suggest it is essential to establish particular intermediary institutions between academics and the government in order to facilitate the cooperation and omit unnecessary bureaucratic processes.

KAZNPU Series Sociological and Political Science , 2021

Two large conflicts arose between representatives of Uighurs and Kazakhs in 2006 and between Kurd... more Two large conflicts arose between representatives of Uighurs and Kazakhs in 2006 and between Kurds and Kazakhs in 2007 within the Republic of Kazakhstan. Official authorities did not want to consider these conflicts as inter-ethnic conflicts in order not to propagate further ethnic escalations and clashes. One of the few reasons were due to the fact that the state did not want to worsen its international image as a peaceful and multi-national state as it has proclaimed to be so, where representatives of around 130 nationalities live in peace and harmony together. In this paper we are going to compare the aforementioned conflicts with the conflict of Korday that happened on February 2020 between Dungans and Kazakhs. Then we are going to offer short-term and long-term solutions for handling the same kinds of conflicts in the future. Finally, we will offer several options to form a Kazakhstani identity based on existing theories of national identity.

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO) in the tourism industry play a crucial role in promotin... more Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO) in the tourism industry play a
crucial role in promoting, marketing, and disseminating the destination image and its
brand via different communication channels. One of them is the usage of Official
Destination Websites (ODWs). Various methodological assessment tools have been
proposed by different scholars to assess the overall quality of destination websites. In the context of Kazakhstan, no comprehensive methodological tool so far has been used to assess the destination websites. Hence, this paper presents a quantitative study by applying the Web Quality Index (WQI) assessment tool for eight Kazakhstani and eight international ODWs. Using a total of 127 indicators grouped into twelve parameters, the objective of the paper is to assess the overall quality of destination websites according to a derived index score and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Alongside that, interviews have been conducted with two Kazakhstani tourism stakeholders, namely Kazakh Tourism JSC and Nur-Sultan Convention & Visitors Bureau. The results show that Kazakhstani ODWs struggle in almost all parameters, unlike the international ODWs, in particular those about communicative, relational, and persuasive aspects. Among the weakest parameters for Kazakhstani ODWs include “interactivity”, “mobile communication” and “marketing”. Most Kazakhstani websites encountered specific problems related to technical and functional issues with mobile applications, commercial systems, or interactive resources. This research can be considered as a pioneer of destination website studies in Kazakhstan, which would help tourism organizations as well as managers to pinpoint the problems that destination websites encounter and confront them with viable policy recommendations.

The problem of refugees in Germany has exacerbated not only its heavily contested political aspec... more The problem of refugees in Germany has exacerbated not only its heavily contested political aspects, but also its labor market system and the integration of refugees in Germany. It is not only a domestic concern for Germany but also an issue that touches upon aspects of its political future. Thus, as a consequence its leadership stance within the European Union is also being numerously questioned. This thesis work will attempt to answer with in-depth analysis the impact of the European Refugee Crisis on the labor market system and explain its contested domestic situation in regards to its political dilemma as well as its future within the European Union. With the onset of the European Refugee problem back in 2015, both internationally and nationally Germany plummeted into a state of a crisis that protracted itself within the domestic level and affected in all possible ways all aspects of the state as well as of the society. At the end of the day bringing concerns in a far bigger scale that Germany has never experienced before. In fact, it became a dilemma to cause trouble for the present time and for the upcoming future. The importance of understanding the whole issue and its process that led to it is as much as important as to disassociate certain things and give relevance and importance for an important aspect that is worth looking at. In other words, limiting ones focus on a specific thing helps to diversify this issue even more and probably tackle it in a more case related concern rather than as a whole-government issue. This is also the reason why this thesis work has its focus mostly directed towards the labor market sector rather than purely economic or political. In fact, it tries to prove that even one aspect can have a bigger impact than the other. However, politics is an immense important attribute here and will always be incorporated alongside the focus on a specific aspect. By that, it is possible to touch upon various aspects from different angles, but still make sure that the research objective is followed. Otherwise, talking blindly by generalizing issues will not shed light on other aspects that really mattered for it.

What concerns the structure of the thesis work, it is divided up into three parts.
The first chapter will contain aspects concerning Merkel´s open door policy Germany´s “Welcome Culture” as well as the aspects regarding the failure of the asylum policy in light of the European refugee crisis. These three aspects will be discussed thoroughly and extensively in order to understand the factors that led to the breakdown of the German labor market system. Having discussed the pre-conditions, the second chapter will be dedicated for a thorough analysis of the German system of its labor market integration. Here we stress upon the impacts as well as effects of the breakdown of the German labor market integration system of refugees and incorporate aspects explaining multi-faceted challenges and problems that it faced and may still be facing up to this day. It will also contain theoretical and pragmatic recommendations at the end of the chapter. The last chapter will take upon the discussion of ideas concerning the rise of the AFD, far right-wing political parties
in Germany as well as questions related to Germany´s future role within the EU. This chapter will explain the aftereffects and link them in such a way to explain the breakdown of the labor market integration system in Germany as a trigger for other issues and those still to come.

Throughout the thesis work, various sources of literature have been used in order to not just simply prove my theory or disprove it, but also for analytical purposes in other spheres of similar importance. For instance, numerous sources were taken from data reports on labor market conditions and their impact on the economy or the evaluation of different viewpoints on certain cultural aspects that may have played their crucial part in setting up a chain reaction for other things to occur were used. Moreover, through such a variety of information it strengthened the credibility of the thesis and let it sink into the reader´s mind like a portrayal of the situation being far more critical and worthy looking at than at the first glance.