Producing Knowledge for Socio-Ecological Transformation in Central Asia? A Humbling Experiment in Re-Cognizing Rivers

As the deepening climate crisis shows, our greatest scientific challenge is to turn abstract understanding into doing. This means that the classic divide in research between ‘basic’, ‘applied’ and ‘outreach’ phases no longer adequately serve the need for transformative social learning. What can this kind of transformation look like in a world region such as Central Asia, with its own distinct legacies of environmental and social flourishing and suffering? What are the consequences of Central Asia’s particular forms of structural opportunity and violence around knowledge-creation? This paper discusses transdisciplinary research models in light of real collaborations on the banks of the Naryn and Syr Darya rivers. I examine the strengths and weaknesses of research with a wide range of actors in Central Asia such as irrigation specialists, artists and social scientist. Drawing on this experience, the paper analyses how broad regional trends in activism and scholarship intersect with global developments in knowledge-production methods and economies.