Post-Liberal Statebuilding in Central Asia: Imaginaries, Discourses and Practices of Social Ordering (Spaces of Peace, Security and Development)

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Drawing on decolonial perspectives on peace, statehood and development, this illuminating book examines post-liberal statebuilding in Central Asia. It argues that, despite its emancipatory appearance, post-liberal statebuilding is best understood as a set of social ordering mechanisms that lead to new forms of exclusion, marginalization and violence. Using ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Kyrgyzstan, the volume offers a detailed examination of community security and peacebuilding discourses and practices. Through its analysis, the book highlights the problem with assumptions about liberal democracy, modern statehood and capitalist development as the standard template for post-conflict countries, which is widespread and rarely reflected upon. Front Cover Series page Post-Liberal Statebuilding in Central Asia: Imaginaries, Discourses and Practices of Social Ordering Copyright information Dedication Table of contents List of Figures and Tables Notes on Transliteration and Language Acknowledgments 1 Introduction Entry: on (im)possible futures Post-liberalism: understanding (dis)order in a post-Western-dominated world Contributions to critical perspectives on peace, security and development Outline of the book 2 Theorizing Post-Liberal Forms of Statebuilding and Order-Making Globally Introduction Post-liberal thought from imperial history to the present The failures and transmutations of ‘liberalism’ in the non-West ... and the West Theorizing post-liberal peace: emancipation, governmentality and decoloniality Emancipation vs governmentality? Toward a decolonial perspective on post-liberal order ‘Community security’ as discourse and practice of peace- and statebuilding Community safety as crime prevention and neoliberal governmentality The global spread of community policing and its discontents Conclusion: Theorizing post-liberalism globally 3 From Imaginary to Practice: Capturing the Multiple Meanings of Peace, Security and Order Heteroglossia: the multiplicity of meanings in social processes Conceptualizing the role of social imaginaries in social ordering A cooperative and practice-based approach to research Reflections from fieldwork and beyond Conclusion 4 Imaginaries and Discourses of Social Order in Kyrgyzstan Introduction: Imaginaries of social order and transformations The Western ‘liberal peace’ imaginary The imaginary West Globalization and capitalist development teleology ‘Made in Kyrgyzstan’ Hard work, perseverance and coping strategies The ‘politics of sovereignty’ imaginary The ‘bad West’ Soviet modernity Ethno-nationalism Anti-colonialism The ‘tradition and culture’ imaginary ‘Traditional’ versus ‘foreign’ Islam Traditional institutions and concepts of social order Traditional knowledge as a source of well-being Connections between humans, the natural and spiritual domain Post-liberal statebuilding in Kyrgyzstan: a framework 5 Local Crime Prevention Centres and the (After) Lives of the State in Rural Kyrgyzstan Life in rural Kyrgyzstan between Soviet legacy and ‘new market realities’ From economic and institutional collapse to a moral economy of survival Translocal livelihoods and their implications for community security Local-level governance, social institutions and crime prevention Local self-governance and social institutions during and after the Soviet Union LCPCs between executive authority and societal concerns International security and peacebuilding programming Practices and discourses of community security in southern Kyrgyzstan LCPC ‘success stories’: overall results and implications Building ‘peoples’ friendship’ after identity-based conflict Conclusion 6 Shaping Peace, Social Order and Resilience: Territorial Youth Councils and the Field of Youth Policy TYCs between conflict prevention and long-term peacebuilding Mobilization, fluctuation and division of labour Delegated, but flexibilized authority Discourses and practices of TYC initiatives Peace, tolerance and exchange between groups and locales National ideology and the ‘right path’ Tackling concrete problems: racketeering and poverty Self-help and solidarity A voice of or vis-à-vis youth? Opportunities and limitations of youth participation and youth policy in Kyrgyzstan Conclusion 7 Reform Deadlock for Stability? The Civic Union ‘For Reforms and Result’ Introduction: Community security and police reform as post-liberal statebuilding From political activism to forging security expertise Practising and interpreting community security Status of working groups Understanding of security problems and solutions: community 1 Understanding of security problems and solutions: community 2 Potentials, implications and interpretation of community-level projects Producing (and ignoring) knowledge Conclusion 8 Conclusion Practices, discourses and imaginaries of social order in Kyrgyzstan Governmentality and decolonial horizons in post-liberal statebuilding Appendix 1: Maps of Kyrgyzstan Appendix 2: Abridged Inventory of Gathered Data Appendix 3: Civic Union Newspaper (Russian Version) References Index Back Cover