Building Moldova, Being Moldovan: Discursive and Institutional Entanglements of 'Development,' 'Citizenship,' and 'Cultural Propriety'

Moldova is one of many new, multiethnic, sovereign states struggling to maintain its borders and generate enough loyalty to keep its population from rebelling, or at least keep its citizens from increasingly drifting away to richer countries. Moldova gained its independence 21 years ago, and the question of its citizens' allegiances has been important to the United States, the European Union, and Russia. Some scholars doubt that feelings of a cohesive society could exist in a Soviet state fashioned out of several historical regions in 1947, and containing many ethnolinguistic groups. Thus, the central questions guiding this dissertation are: What processes guide the creation of a "cohesive society"? How is social cohesion related to shared cultural experiences? And, How are Moldovans navigating the transition of their lives from one type of state (and one type of citizenship) to another?;This work investigates contemporary common experiences of Moldovans, more narrowly asking how a "citizen" identity is constructed, as opposed to an ethnic or ethnonational identity. Drawing on literature from linguistic anthropology and critical discourse analysis, I hold that identities are formed through the mutually constituting relationship between discourse and culture. The majority of data was collected through ethnographic research with the Moldova Social Investment Fund (MSIF). By a close examination of the process by which applicants obtain an MSIF grant, I show one way in which Moldovans become exposed to Western ideologies and practices of participatory democracy and community development. I also demonstrate how the ideologies constitute powerful discursive formations that frame these new practices as appropriate means of building community cohesion. The relatively new discursive formations were compared to Moldovans' pre-existing ideas about development and citizenship, which intersect with, overlap, and challenge more contemporary discourses of development and citizenship. All of these are integrated, to varying degrees, into what Moldovans consider "proper" ways of being, or what makes an acceptable member of Moldovan culture and society. Through examination of the discursive formations of development, citizenship, and cultural propriety, my dissertation shows how Western ideals of civic behavior and social cohesion are being integrated into Moldovan life via MSIF development projects.