1,721,031 research outputs found
The impregnable fortress of Islamic public administration in Central Asia : Mahalla institutions in Uzbekistan
No full textThere was a widespread euphoria in the 1990s in Uzbekistan and other post-Soviet societies at the prospect that introducing Western-style public administration (PA) institutions and traditions would play a pivotal role in promoting the rule of law and democratisation. Like other newly independent post-Soviet states, Uzbekistan has become a “laboratory” for testing various global (Western) PA models and initiatives. As a result of these interventions, Uzbekistan's administrative system has developed hybrid features combining elements both from the Western and Soviet PA models: “Western” when we analyse its institutional and legal landscape, and “Soviet” when observing how public administration institutions work in practice. However, one salient PA tradition under-studied in the scholarly literature on Uzbekistan is the legacy of Islamic public administration (Islamic PA), which can be visualised when observing everyday life in micro-level social arenas. With this in mind, this chapter explores the legacy and context of Islamic PA in Uzbekistan through the ethnographic study of mahalla institutions, an indigenous governance structure originating from Central Asia's Islamic past and administrative traditions
Informality currencies: a tale of Misha, his brigada and informal practices among Uzbek labour migrants in Russia
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Smartphone Transnationalism in Non-Western Migration Regimes: Transnational Ethnography of Uzbek Migrant Workers in Russia
Get PDFThere is an extensive research that explores the reproduction of transnational communities and relations, with a particular focus on locality, identity and culture. However, the existing research emanates from the case studies of immigrant communities in Western-type democracies, while we know little about migrant transnationalism in non-Western migration regimes such as Russia, where migrant workers are subjected to numerous human rights abuses and cannot publicly and overtly engage in transnational practices. Moreover, the role of new media, such as smartphones and social media, in migrant transnationalism remains under-researched. Given the socio-political and cultural differences between Western and post-Soviet societies, we cannot assume that the methodological tools and theoretical perspectives developed in Western contexts are necessarily applicable to Russia, where the repressive socio-political environment, the lack of democratic culture and arbitrary law enforcement leave little room for migrant legalization, transnational activism and collective mobilization. The above considerations inform my position in this chapter, which is intended to contribute to the debates on migrant transnationalism and informality literature in two distinct ways. I present the results of extensive multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Moscow, Russia, and Ferghana region, Uzbekistan. My case study looks at Uzbek migrants in Moscow and their families and communities in Shabboda village in Ferghana. Unlike in Western countries, where migrants establish relatively functional transnational communities, there is little in the way of ‘Uzbek transnational community’ in Russia due to the restrictive legal environment and anti-migrant sentiment. Even though Uzbek migrants’ transnational activism is hardly visible in public places, I argue that rapid improvements in communication technologies (e.g. smartphones and social media) have enabled Uzbek migrants to stay in touch with their home societies, as well as create permanent, smartphone-based translocal communities in Moscow, usually centred around migrants who hail from the same mahalla or village in Uzbekistan. The existence of this smartphone-based transnational environment helps migrants cope with the challenges of musofirchilik (being alien) and avoid or manoeuver around structural constraints such as complicated residence registration and work permit rules, social exclusion, racism and the lack of social security
Understanding and Theorizing Migrants’ Experiences in Non-Western, Non-Democratic Migration Regimes
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Exploring Islamic Public Administration : Ethnographic and Socio-Legal Approaches
No full textThis article aims to present and develop methodological tools and analytical insights for the empirical study of Islamic Public Administration (PA). To achieve this, it reviews some of the most common theoretical and analytical approaches in ethnography and socio-legal studies and highlights their relevance and contributions to research on Islamic PA. Specifically, it demonstrates how to (a) conduct ethnographic fieldwork on Islamic PA institutions and (b) analyze, conceptualize, and write about this type of ethnographic fieldwork within PA research. Theoretically, the article draws on socio-legal theories to construct a conceptual framework for analyzing living Islamic administrative traditions within local communities. The central argument is that employing ethnographic and socio-legal methods enables us to view Islamic PA as a living tradition, expressed through the mundane, everyday administrative practices and traditions found in various Muslim contexts. To substantiate this argument, the article presents empirical material from the author’s ethnographic study of Mahalla institutions in Uzbekistan, illustrating how to conduct and write about Islamic PA research in practice. By doing so, this chapter aims to illuminate theoretical and methodological aspects of ethnographic fieldwork, with the hope of inspiring new empirically oriented studies on Islamic PA
Mahalla in Uzbekistan: An Embodiment of Muslim Values of Neighbourliness and Mutual Support
No full textThe main purpose of this brief reflection is to examine the relationship between (a) Muslim communal values of neighborliness, mutual support and responsibility for those living together in a defined, spacial community and b)the built environment and structures of mosques and community gathering spaces, with a focus on how the existence of such a built environment and infrastructure helps to develop, nurture, and promote Muslim communal values. The above questions will be explored with reference to the author’s ethnographic study in Uzbekistan focusing on mahalla, an indigenous Islamic community-based institution in Central Asia whose origin dates back to Central Asia’s Golden Age – the 11-12th centuries when the region was ruled by Turko-Muslim dynasties
Ethnicity, Migration and Digital Labour: Mobile Phone Technology Use Among Uzbek Migrants
Get PDFSmartphones and social media have become inextricable parts of our daily lives. The everyday lives and communication practices of migrant workers are particularly affected by these global technological developments. Such global developmental trends are especially visible within the growing body of scholarly literature on migrant transnationalism and technology, where mobile phones are examined as central drivers of migrant transnationalism. However, the bulk of the existing literature on “migration and mobile phone technology” focuses on the case studies of immigrant communities living in Western democracies (e.g., the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia). Given the socio-political and cultural differences between Western and post-Soviet contexts, we cannot assume that theoretical insights and tools developed in Western contexts are fully applicable in the Russian context. The Russian context provides intriguing insights to “migration and mobile phone technology” debates given its undemocratic regime, xenophobic environment, corrupt legal system, and draconian immigration laws and policies that leave little room for migrant transnational activism and collective mobilisation. Notwithstanding these structural barriers and xenophobic environment, migrants in Russia are resilient actors and have developed alternative coping strategies by producing smartphone-mediated transnational communities and identities, usually centered around migrants who hail from the same village and community. Accordingly, within the Russian context, smartphones and social media serve not merely to maintain daily transnational communication (i.e., being “here” and “there”), but, more importantly, represent tools for building a tight-knit community and are crucial to migrants’ daily survival and livelihoods in a repressive and xenophobic environment. These processes encompass not only coping strategies and communicative practices that take place within the migrant labour market (“outside world”) but also touch upon the lives of migrants serving prison sentences in Russia’s penal institutions (“inside world”). In this sense, smartphones provide a virtual platform for various risk-stretching activities and establishing social safety nets otherwise unavailable from the migrants’ home and host countries
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