This volume addresses the crucial role of knowledge and innovation in coping with and adapting to socio-economic and political transformation processes in post-Soviet societies. Unique are the bottom up or micro-sociological and ethnographic perspectives offered by the book on the processes of post-Soviet transformations in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. Three thematic fields form the structuring frame: cultures of knowledge production and sharing in agriculture; local governance arrangements and knowledge production; and finally, the present situation of agricultural advisory services development.

Anna-Katharina Hornidge is Professor of Social Sciences and Head of the Research Group `Development and Knowledge Sociology¿ at the Leibniz-Center for Tropical Marine Ecology and the University of Bremen. She specializes on environmental epistemologies, cultures of knowledge production and sharing, as well as development-oriented innovation creation and diffusion processes in Central and Southeast Asia.
Anastasiya Shtaltovna is Visiting scholar at Center for International Studies (CÉRIUM), University of Montreal & Associate Researcher at Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. Her work and research interests lie in post-socialist transformations, knowledge and innovation, rural development, and comparative studies. Dr. Shtaltovna has conducted an extended fieldwork in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Conrad Schetter is Professor for Conflict and Peace Studies at the University of Bonn and Director for Research at the Bonn International Center for Conversion. He carried out several research projects in Central Asia and South Asia during the last decade. His specific interest lies in local politics and local governance as well as in conflicts about natural resources.

Contents: Anna-Katharina Hornidge/Anastasiya Shtaltovna/Conrad Schetter: Introduction: Independence, Transformation and the Search for a Future in Agriculture - Kristof Van Assche/Anna-Katharina Hornidge/Anastasiya Shtaltovna/Hafiz Boboyorov: Epistemic Cultures in Transition: Agricultural Expertise Development in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia - Jeanne Féaux de la Croix: Foot Soldiers of Development? The Role of Kyrgyzstani Treneri in Agricultural Knowledge Transfer - Lena Fey: Which Knowledge, Which Agriculture? Local Farmers and Agricultural Development in Georgia - Anja Katharina Salzer: Knowledge for Sustainability - Cultural Capital of Ethnic Minorities in High Mountain Areas of the South Caucasus - Filippo de Danieli/Anastasiya Shtaltovna: Competition Within the State, With the State and Beyond the State: Agricultural Extension in Tajikistan and the Struggles of Market Formation - Tim Röing: Creating Business Mentalities: Knowledge and Rural Development in Georgia from a Discursive Perspective - Irna Hofman: More Foreign than Other Foreigners: On Discourse and Adoption - the Contradiction of Astonishment and Fear of Chinese Farm Practices in Tajikistan - Kristof Van Assche/Anastasiya Shtaltovna/Anna-Katharina Hornidge: Local Knowledge and Expert Knowledge in Rural Transition: Georgian Wine Production - Nodir Djanibekov: Agricultural Organization and the Role of Contractual Structures in Knowledge Flows in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan - Makhmud Shaumarov/Regine Birner: Scientific Knowledge of Dryland Pastoral System Development in Uzbekistan - Hafiz Boboyorov: Constraints and Concerns for Farming and Cropping Types and Strategies in Southern Tajikistan - Andreas Mandler: Investments in Agriculture in Northern Tajikistan: Considering the Dehqon Farm - Wibke Crewett: «There is a New Law?» Experiences from the Implementation of a Pasture Governance Reform in Kyrgyzstan - Kristof Van Assche: Afterword: Expertise and Rural Development after the Soviets.