Inclusiveness in public catering in decolonising post-socialist Almaty: intersection of gender, ethnicity and class

INCLUSIVESPACE examines gender, ethnicity, and class dynamics in Almaty’s catering through combining anthropology, urban studies, and sociolinguistics and explores how public catering venues shape experiences of inclusivity in a post-socialist, postcolonial context. Almaty’s diverse cultural and linguistic landscape offers a rich setting to analyze how urban spaces reflect and reinforce social inequalities.Focusing on public catering venues as sites of social inclusion, the project investigates access to urban services, mobility of marginalized groups, and how public spaces mediate belonging and exclusion. It also examines how social media and marketing strategies influence perceptions of inclusivity, particularly through language and identity representation. By integrating urban studies, gender and queer studies, decolonial research, and sociolinguistics, INCLUSIVESPACE highlights the interplay between space, identity, and power.