In this talk, Filipp Semyonov introduces the idea of ‘a-politicized peace’ as a heuristic category that sheds further light on the persistence of postcolonial structures within Kazakhstani society. He examinse how everyday peace is framed as inherently outside of politics, i.e., imagined as natural, universal, and uncontested.
The issue, however, is that rendering societal antagonisms unintelligible or illegitimate does not necessarily lead to conflict transformations. Rather, it often sustains structures of inequality and exclusion. The heuristic concept of ‘a-politicized peace’ is used to reveal a domain beyond depoliticization by showing how the very possibility of democratic struggle is erased. In its place, an always-fragile stability is maintained, one that relies on
silencing disagreement rather than negotiating it.
