Book Chapter: Introduction to Change in Democratic Mongolia

Research on Contemporary Mongolia

Julian Dierkes in J. Dierkes, ed. Change in Democratic Mongolia – Social Relations, Health, Mobile Pastoralism, and Mining Leiden: Brill, 1-13.

In my introduction, I document the origins of the volume in a conference I organized through the University of British Columbia Program on Inner Asia to commemorate the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Mongolia.

One of the aspects of the conference that was a grand success and laid the foundation for the present volume was its inclusiveness in terms of topics addressed across the social sciences and origins of the authors from Asia, Europe and North America.

In the preparation I had selected eight focus areas that seemed to host particularly vibrant communities of researchers focused on contemporary Mongolia: 1. pastoralism, 2. ecosystems, 3. mining, 4. religion, 5. education, 6. politics and international relations, 7. health, and 8. transition studies. The papers collected in this volume represent a cross-section of works across these areas.

The introductory chapter situates these chapters within their larger academic context, provides an overview over the volume, and a brief synopsis of the historical background of Mongolian development that provides the backdrop for all the contributions to the book.

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