In May, the European Commission's HORIZON Programme confirmed the funding for Rustamjon Urinboyev's research and training program "The Political Economy of Legal and Governance Reform in Non-Western Societies: Insights from Central Asia". The project starts in 2026 and will bring €700,000 to the Sociology of Law Department to finance project staff, project coordination and researcher secondments.
An interdisciplinary consortium of 30 academic and non-academic institutions from Europe, North America, Central Asia, and East Asia will exchange research and staff within the project. The researchers will conduct case studies in Central Asia to examine institutions and norms that shape governance outside formal state structures.
One such alternative non-Western institution is the mahalla. These neighbourhood communities are rooted in Central Asian Islamic administrative tradition and are prevalent in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Mahallas shape everyday life by uniting residents through shared cultural practices, language, and values. They provide social welfare and public goods and function as low-tier courts by resolving conflicts.
In the post-Soviet era, state governments incorporated mahallas into their public administration. "Mahallas have evolved to respond to the declining state capacity in the post-Soviet period, acting as a pseudo-local government compensating for the failure of the state to secure the basic needs of its citizens," says Urinboyev, who has studied social norms and public administration in Central Asia for almost 20 years.
The research will produce new policy insights to inform policymakers and development practitioners inside and outside the EU working to strengthen governance in non-Western societies.
