Resilience: Reimagining Narratives of (Im)mobilities

Authors

  • Holly R. Barcus Macalester College
  • Cynthia A. Werner Texas A&M University
  • Amangul Shugatai Mongolian Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0019-113X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48162/rev.40.096

Keywords:

Cultural resilience, rural women, adaptation, livelihoods, (im)mobilities

Abstract

Migration and immobility have long been recognized as strategies of adaptation for communities faced with significant economic, political, social or environmental shocks. In the context of migrating, however, everyday practices of identity and culture allow many migrants to sustain and maintain cultural practices and ethnic identities that tie them back to their home place. Drawing on a longitudinal and multi-sited ethnographic study based on data collected amongst ethnic Kazakhs in Mongolia in 2006-2009 and again in 2015-2016, we argue that migration coupled with everyday practices of cultural traditions and ritual celebrations help strengthen ethnic identities that in turn create avenues for cultural resilience.

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Author Biographies

Holly R. Barcus, Macalester College

DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She currently serves as Vice President of the Executive Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU) and serves as co- editor of the International Geographical Union Series on Contemporary Geographies with Edward Elgar Publishing and as a member of the Editorial Board for Geography and Sustainability. Her research interests reside at the intersection of migration, ethnicity and rural peripheries with her primary research areas including Mongolia and remote regions of the United States.
Research director/first author: Responsible for the idea, planning and execution of the research/project. Editor, style editor: Responsible for reviewing the final draft or style correction.

Cynthia A. Werner, Texas A&M University

Professor of anthropology at Texas A&M University. Shereceived her PhD in anthropology from Indiana University in 1997. She has conducted fieldwork in Central Asia since the early 1990s. Her research has focused the post-socialist economic transition, the social impacts of the Soviet nuclear testing program, and Kazakhstan's ethnic repatriation program. 
Research co-director/second author: Jointly responsible for the planning and execution of the research/project. Editor, style editor: Responsible for reviewing the final draft or style correction.

Amangul Shugatai, Mongolian Academy of Sciences

Researcher at the Institute of International Studies, Mongolian Academy of Sciences. She holds a Master in International Relations from Nanhua University, Taiwan (2010), and a Bachelor's degree in Geography from the National University of Mongolia (2004). 2006-2016, Researcher at the Department of Socio-Economic Geography, Institute of Geography, where she conducted field research on population settlement, migration trends, and urbanization in Mongolia. She also contributed to a research project on Kazakh migration of Western Mongolia as a research assistant between 2006 and 2009.Her current research focuses on Mongolia’s foreign policy toward Central. Asia and Mongolia–Kazakhstan relations.
Primary participants: Researchers who actively participate in the research process with data collection, bibliography, field trips, conducting surveys, etc. Editor, style editor: Responsible for reviewing the final draft or style correction.

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Published

01-07-2026

How to Cite

Barcus, H. R., Werner, C. A., & Shugatai, A. (2026). Resilience: Reimagining Narratives of (Im)mobilities. Boletín e studios Geográficos, (125), 91-105. https://doi.org/10.48162/rev.40.096

Issue

No. 125 (2026)

Section

Dossier

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