Capitalism in Mongolia–ideology, practice and ambiguity

Abstract

Definitions of and understandings of capitalism are currently the source of much debate in Mongolia’s recent context of severe economic decline. This has followed the differing and sometimes contradictory perceptions of capitalism that have emerged throughout both Mongolia’s recent capitalist history and experiences of socialism. Following an anthropological, generative approach to the making of capitalist economy and drawing from Çalişkan and Callon’s discussion of economization, we explore how the economization of everyday life in Mongolia since 1990 has given rise to a context in which the economy is intensely politicized. This special issue explores the kinds of new economic practices, social formations, ideologies and subjectivities that Mongolia’s capitalist economic forms have produced. We ask what Mongolian processes of economization can tell us about the formation of capitalist economies more generally.