Environment, space, and identity in the Eurasian region

Globalizations. 2026. Vol. 23. No. 1. P. 1–9.

Di Puppo L., Roy Chowdhury A.

In this special issue, we bring together the post-colonial and post-socialist conditions of the post-Soviet space and the Indian subcontinent through the study of human–nature relationships. Not only are these two regions entangled through the Eurasian geography, but they also both represent hybrid modernization trajectories characterized by varying socio-political responses to Western modernity and the resulting blending of Western and non-Western ideas. The special issue thus explores contemporary environmental debates, practices, and discourses beyond the Western liberal model by focusing on forms of local resistance/adaptation, state interventions, and resource exploitation in the Eurasian space. The contributions to this issue examine grassroots responses to the environmental disruptions caused by these modernizing legacies, as well as to ongoing extractive practices. They further demonstrate that ways of relating to the natural environment in the Eurasian space are deeply intertwined with questions of identity.

Keywords: Russia, space, environment, identity, India, Mongolia, Eurasia, cultural space of society

Publication based on the results of: The diversity of forms, effects and barriers to integration of modern Russian society in synchronic and diachronic dimensions (2025)