Epistemologicheskiye debaty o tom, kak pravil'neye opredelit' naimenovaniye i granitsy regiona, nazyvayemogo Sredney / Tsentral'noy / Vnutrenney Aziyey ili zhe Yevraziyey, ne zatikhayut s momenta izobreteniya etikh terminov v pervoy polovine XIX veka. Standartnyye argumenty tsiklichno vystraivayutsya na peresechenii nauchnykh rassuzhdeniy i psevdonauchnykh konstruktsiy, politiki i geopolitiki, ustoyavshikhsya literaturnykh oborotov i vkusovykh pristrastiy. Predlagayemaya v knige Svetlany Gorsheninoy istoriya nachal'nykh etapov vyrabotki kontsepta Sredney / Tsentral'noy Azii demonstriruyet neodnoznachnost' mnogikh privychnykh opredeleniy, pokazyvaya, chto vse sushchestvuyushchiye imenovaniya otnosyatsya ne k ob"yektivnomu geograficheskomu poryadku, a k geografii reprezentsiy. Dekodiruya voobrazhayemyye kriterii, avtor pokazyvayet svyaz' etikh toponimov s geograficheskim determinizmom, printsipom «tsentrichnosti», geopoliticheskimi interesami natsional'nykh gosudarstv i transnatsional'nykh gruppirovok, a takzhe s lineynym pozitivizmom, svyazannym s yevropotsentrizmom i zapadnym imperializmom. Dannaya publikatsiya yavlyayetsya adaptirovannym perevodom chasti knigi L'invention de l'Asie centrale. Histoire du concept de la Tartarie a l'Eurasie (Genève: Droz, 2014)