Depend on Each Other and Don't Just Sit: The Socialist Legacy, Responsibility, and Winter Risk among Mongolian Herders

Abstract

Discourses of Mongolian herders as and irresponsible often emerge in the context of severe winters. Since Mongolia's transition from socialism to capitalism, a neoliberal emphasis on individual agency has contributed to a blame-the-victim phenomenon when herders lose livestock to severe winters. Many foreign development professionals and Mongolians alike believe that socialism produced a population of herders who continue to rely on aid during severe winters rather than working hard to safeguard their own livelihoods. This paper argues that the legacy of socialism is more complicated, building off of pre-socialist institutions and, in the present era of Western-sponsored development, complementing neoliberal emphases to a degree that has gone unrecognized. Socialism did not produce universal apathy toward work among Mongolia's herders. It did, however, contribute to current discourses of work, risk, and responsibility, including lazy herder discourses. The paper concludes by arguing that...