From Nomads to City Dwellers: Nomadic Urbanism in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan has always been deeply connected with a nomadic way of life — mobility, flexibility, the ability to live in harmony with nature and quickly adapt to changes in the environment. Yet in the 21st century, the country is changing rapidly: cities are growing, lifestyles are changing and the economic model is being transformed.

Urbanization in Kyrgyzstan is not a rejection of nomadic heritage, but a new form of it. If mobility was once expressed through seasonal migration, today it appears in flexible forms of employment, digital services, the transformation of public spaces and the growth of internal migration.

The main question is whether Kyrgyzstan can form its own model of “nomadic urbanism” — cities that preserve cultural identity while being managed according to modern principles. Experts help examine this topic: Emil Nasritdinov, co-founder of the Urban Development Fund of Kyrgyzstan, and Ilya Belyakov, representative of INTEGRA CITY Group of Companies, which implements technological solutions for smart and safe cities.

From yurt to high-rise: changing spatial logic

In recent decades, the concept of “nomadic urbanism” has appeared in some academic publications on urban studies and social theory, although the concept is still searching for its development paths. In the 21st century, the term “nomadic urbanism” has been used:

• to analyze cities with high population mobility and migration;
• to describe flexible urban structures;
• in the context of digital nomads;
• in studies of post-Soviet and Asian cities where the cultural memory of nomadism remains.

In Kyrgyzstan, the term “nomadic urbanism” was developed and is actively promoted by experts from the Urban Development Fund of Kyrgyzstan — a public center that brings together the country’s urbanists, city planners, architects, activists and entrepreneurs. The idea of nomadic urbanism has become the philosophy and conceptual foundation of the fund. Its main premise is the need to search for Kyrgyzstan’s own unique principles, strategies and practices of urban development, harmonized with the local historical, social, cultural, geographical and economic context. Such an approach allows modern urban knowledge and practices from other countries to be adapted as effectively as possible. The organization regularly holds public meetings in Bishkek in the “Shaarkany” format to discuss the concept of nomadic urbanism in relation to various urban topics, and is also organizing another Urban Forum dedicated to the theme of Nomadic Cities.

The fund identifies several key principles of nomadic urbanism. First is horizontal development, inclusivity and the active involvement of many local urban actors, reflecting a more democratic nomadic community structure and offering an alternative to top-down urbanism. The second important principle is authenticity: the search for unique and original solutions that are not only functional, but also aesthetic, culturally meaningful and adapted to each unique urban location — as an alternative to more mechanical, standardized and systematic solutions. A third way beyond mechanical systemization is openness to spontaneity and affective decision-making.

According to Emil Nasritdinov, PhD, Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at AUCA and co-founder of the Urban Development Fund, in this perspective “nomadic urbanism” is a way of designing a city based on nomadosophy — a subtle, complex and implicit system of nomadic knowledge that is highly intuitive, flexible and relies on how we feel and perceive the world through our senses, rather than on the simplified rationality and mechanical logic of capitalist production and consumption.

Digitalization in the “nomadic city” model

Historically, nomadism meant the ability to respond quickly to environmental changes. In the 21st century, this function is being taken over by data and digital infrastructure. It is through analytics and the integration of urban systems that the key principles of “digital nomadism” are realized. Experts from INTEGRA CITY Group of Companies, which specializes in city digitalization, identify three key principles in this area.

First, adaptability: if a city collects data not for the sake of control, but to flexibly adjust processes, it becomes more “nomadic” in essence — analyzing transport flows, responding quickly to incidents and forecasting them through video surveillance systems, monitoring the load on utility networks and receiving digital feedback from residents.

Second, mobility: nomadic culture was built around movement, and today freedom of movement is supported by smart transport systems that enable a flexible lifestyle within the city and free, safe movement between regions.

Third, flexibility: digital services provide remote access to public services, expand citizen participation in governance and integrate vulnerable groups through online platforms. Alongside this, the phenomenon of digital nomadism is developing: in 2025, the Kyrgyz Republic officially established the status of “digital nomad,” returning the idea of nomadic freedom to the modern economy and creating new tasks for urban planning.

As Ilya Belyakov, Director of the Technical Department of INTEGRA CITY Group of Companies, notes, a modern city becomes truly resilient when it can adapt to changes as quickly as nomadic communities once did — and it is data, the ability to work with it, digital technologies and AI that make it possible to turn this philosophy into management practice.

“We reviewed the proposed concept of digitalization as a tool of nomadic urbanism and found it interesting, unique and fully aligned with our vision. We are glad that the concept is finding wider application and new perspectives,” emphasizes Emil Nasritdinov.

Kyrgyzstan does not have to copy Western models of megacities. Its strength lies in its own cultural matrix. The transition “from nomads to city dwellers” is not a break with the past, but its continuation in a new form. For Kyrgyzstan, urbanization becomes a historical continuation of the nomadic logic of adaptability: cities are growing, changing and requiring flexible management. The nomadic ability to adapt quickly to change can become the foundation of modern urban policy, and in this context a wide range of tools can be applied.