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Photo of Rustam

Rustamjon Urinboyev

Associate professor

Photo of Rustam

Political vs. Everyday Forms of Governance in Uzbekistan: The Illegal, Immoral, and Illegitimate

Author

  • Rustam Urinboyev

Editor

  • Abel Polese

Summary, in English

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Uzbekistan, this article looks at the way official state narratives are challenged by silent, unorganized, often unawares, gestures of resistance at the bottom of a society. Footing on a framework suggested by Scott’s definition of infrapolitics (2012), we propose to incorporate informal practices in a definition of informality that is more inclusive, and better explains the anatomy of a modern state, whose functioning rests on a combination of formal and informal practices. We suggest that this everyday dimension is of particular importance here when trying to understand the governance trajectories as it allows to look critically, and from a broader perspective, at situations where individual and state perception of events, but also individual and state morality, diverge. By doing this, we propose that governance in transition states and societies may be regarded as a space where formal institutions and citizens (or informal institutions) compete for power and resources and thereby produce informal, alternative “legal orders” and mechanisms that regulate public life in a given area. We will suggest that such a space of informal negotiation is vital in contexts where collective mobilization and public articulation of social claims is not a preferred, or even available, strategy for citizens.

Department/s

  • Department of Sociology of Law

Publishing year

2022-01-01

Language

English

Pages

223-247

Publication/Series

Informality, Labour Mobility and Precariousness: Supplementing the State for the Invisible and the Vulnerable

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

Topic

  • Law and Society
  • International Migration and Ethnic Relations

Status

Published

Project

  • Understanding Islamic Legal Culture and Migration through Ethnographic and Archival Research
  • Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia
  • Migration, Shadow Economy and Parallel Legal Orders in Russia
  • The Multilevel Orders of Corruption - Insights from a Post-Soviet Context

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 978-3-030-82498-3