In search of harmony: Repairing infrastructure and social relations in the Ferghana Valley

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 53-66

  Bichsel, Christine ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BERN   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT; INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING; INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK; POWER RELATIONS;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; FARGHONA WILOYATI; UZBEKISTAN; WEST ASIA; WORLD;

EID: 18244399089     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: None     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634930500050008     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. Randa Slim, 'The Ferghana Valley: in the midst of a host of crises', in P. van Tongeren, H. van de Veen and J. Verhoeven, eds, Searching for Peace in Europe and Eurasia: An Overview of Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Activities (London: Lynne Rienner, 2002), pp 489-515.
2. Martha Brill Olcott, 'Central Asia: common legacies and conflicts', in R. Allison and L. Johnson, eds, Central Asian Security: The New International Context (London: Royal Institute for International Affairs, 2001), p 44.
3. John Schoeberlein, 'Regional introduction: a host of preventable conflicts', in P. van Tongeren, H. van de Veen and J. Verhoeven, eds, Searching for Peace in Europe and Eurasia: An Overview of Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Activities (London: Lynne Rienner, 2002), p 470.
4. Square brackets indicate changes in the original quotation that the author made to enhance its understanding, to bring in the context of the quotation, or to adjust it to the flow of the text. However, these changes do not alter the original meaning.
5. Author's interview with project representative, 2003.
6. George E. Marcus, 'Ethnography in/of the world system: the emergence of multi-sited ethnography', Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol 24, 1995, pp 95-117.
7. Projects addressing conflict in the Ferghana Valley have adopted a wide range of activities. They have established early warning networks, funded media and education projects to reduce prejudices and foster 'tolerance', established mediation networks, provided fora and facilitated dialogues at different levels, supported micro-business and funded micro-lending programmes, attempted to improve border management, fostered civil society initiatives, enhanced access to social justice and promoted local development for target communities. For a comprehensive, although not updated overview, see Luigi De Martino, Peace Initiatives in Central Asia: An Inventory, Situation Report (Geneva: Cimera, 2001).
8. 'Peaceful Community 'Initiative' a three-year project operating since October 2001 in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
9. 'Regional Dialogue and Development Project in the Ferghana Valley' a three-year project operating since June 2002 in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This project follows activities of two pilot projects financed by SDC which operated since 1999.
10. 'Preventive Development Component' in the South. Initially, a two-year pilot project named 'Preventive Development Component' operated since 2000 in Batken oblast', Kyrgyzstan. Based on the pilot project's results, an expanded project named 'Preventive Development Programme' was launched in July 2003 together with the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), covering Batken oblast', Osh oblast and Jalal-Abad oblast in Kyrgyzstan.
11. I also make use of the conflict analysis report written in the framework of a German Development Cooperation (GTZ) project ('Promoting food security, regional co-operation and stability in Batken region'), because of its instructiveness for the approach discussed.
12. De Martino, op cit, Ref 7, p 17.
13. SDC, 'Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan: Regional Dialogue and Development Project in the Ferghana Valley (RDD), Credit Proposal', Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Department for Cooperation with Eastern Europe and the CIS, Berne, 2002, no pagination.
14. Tony Vaux and Kakhramon Rakhmanov, 'RDD external review', May 2004, unpublished draft version, p 26. Moreover, the article does not examine the influence of donors' institutionalized experience from former development and/or conflict mitigation projects in other countries. Neither does it focus on the role of donors' project politics, culture and history in the development of the discussed approach. Understanding the general origins of the conciliatory approach is important, yet it lies outside of the scope of this article.
15. Louis Kriesberg, 'Conflict Resolution Applications to Peace Studies', Peace and Change, Vol 16, No 4, 1991, p 404,
16. in Vivienne Jabri, Discourses on Violence: Conflict Analysis Reconsidered (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), p 13.
17. Mercy Corps, Beyond Borders: Year One Annual Report, October 2001 to September 2002 (Andijan: Peaceful Communities Initiative, 2002), p 3.
18. Mark Hobart, 'Introduction: the growth of ignorance?', in M. Hobart, ed, An Anthropological Critique of Development. The Growth of Ignorance (London: Routledge, 1993), p 2.
19. I b i d.
20. Ruth Mandel, 'Seeding civil society', in Chris M. Hann, ed, Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia (London: Routledge, 2002), p 292.
21. Edward W. Said, Orientalism (London: Penguin Books, 2003), p 2.
22. Author's interview with project representative, 2003.
23. I b i d.
24. Mercy Corps, op cit, Ref 16, p 2;
25. Daniel Passon and Azamat Temirkulov, 'Analysis of peace and conflict potential in Batken Oblast, Kyrgyzstan', German Development Cooperation/ Research Analysis Group, 2004, http://gtzesp.tj/Documents/ ARC%20GTZ-Report-Kyrgyzstan.pdf, accessed 25 October 2004, p ii;
26. SDC, op cit, Ref 13, no pagination.
27. Mercy Corps, op cit, Ref 16, p 2;
28. Ruslan Monolbaev and Temirbek Koshoev, 'Preventive Development Component. Annual Report 2001', United Nations Development Programme, Bishkek, 2001;
29. SDC, op cit, Ref 13, no pagination.
30. Passon and Temirkulov, op cit, Ref 23, p 12,
31. SDC, op cit, Ref 13, no pagination.
32. See, for example, Passon and Temirkulov, op cit, Ref 23.
33. Author's interview with NGO representative, 2003.
34. Author's interview with project representative, 2003.
35. Anara Tabyshalieva, 'Researching Ethnic Conflict in Post-Soviet Central Asia', in M. Smyth and G. Robertson, eds, Researching Violently Divided Societies: Ethical and Methodological Issues (London: Pluto Press, 2001), pp 133-134.
36. Passon and Temirhulov, op cit, Ref 23, p 51.
37. RDD, Regional Dialogue and Development Project (RDD)-Analysis and Options December 2003 (Tashkent: Regional Dialogue and Development Project, 2003), p 12.
38. I purposely choose 'collective body' in the absence of a formal or informal institution that enforces these rights.
39. Mercy Corps, op cit, Ref 16, p 2.
40. Mandel, op cit, Ref 19, p 287.
41. Mercy Corps, op cit, Ref 16.
42. Monolbaev and Koshoev, op cit, Ref 24;
43. SDC, op cit, Ref 13.
44. William F. Fisher, 'Doing good? The politics and antipolitics of NGO Practices', Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol 26, 1997, p 456.
45. A member of the Sogment Community Initiative Group stated that women in the group prepared food and did the presentations, while the men dealt with the technical aspects of the project they implemented.
46. '...it is the younger people who have already changed their viewpoints, who already have an understanding of market economy. Often people no longer believe the old leaders; they prefer young people who have understood that somebody needs to become active in order to solve all these problems. Also, the level of education plays a role' (author's interview with a member of an initiative group in Aksay, 2004, translation by Usubaly Prinikulov).
47. Slim, op cit, Ref 1, p 511.
48. Author's interview with project representative, 2004, own translation. In this interview, the person refers to the institution of elders that exists in Central Asia. The literal translation from the Kyrgyz term for elders, aksakal, means 'white beard'.
49. SDC, op cit, Ref 13, no pagination.
50. RDD, op cit, Ref 32, p 12.
51. Mercy Corps, op cit, Ref 16, p 2.
52. See, for example, Passon and Temirkulov, op cit, Ref 23.
53. SDC, op cit, Ref 13, no pagination.
54. Monolbaev and Koshoev, op cit, Ref 24, p 5.
55. Mercy Corps, op cit, Ref 16, p 2.
56. Laura Nader, Harmony Ideology. Justice and Control in a Zapotec Mountain Village (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990).
57. RDD, op cit, Ref 32, p 11.
58. 'During the Soviet Union, we had no conflicts, no prostitution, no drugs. Of course, all these things existed, but there was no transparency. When something happened, the KGB would come and cover everything. Everything would be closed, no one would have access and no one would say a word' (author's interview with NGO representative, 2003, own translation).
59. USAID, 'Ferghana Valley neighbours celebrate improved access to water and better relations', Success Stories from the Field, http:// www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/car/successarchive/index.html, accessed 25 October 2004.
60. I b i d.
61. Laura Nader and Harry Todd, The Disputing Process: Law in Ten Societies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978).
62. Laura Nader, 'The underside of conflict management-in Africa and elsewhere', IDS Bulletin, Vol 32, No 1, 2001, p 25.
63. James Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine: 'Development', Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
64. Fisher, op cit, Ref 38, p 446.
65. Mandel, op cit, Ref 19, p 281.
66. Fisher, op cit, Ref 38, p 444.
67. See, for example, Julie Hemment, 'The riddle of the third sector: civil society, international aid, and NGOs in Russia', Anthropological Quarterly, Vol 77, No 2, 2004, pp 215-241;
68. Sarah L. Henderson, 'Selling civil society: Western aid and the nongovernmental organizational sector in Russia', Comparative Political Studies, Vol 35, No 2, 2002, pp 139-167;
69. Pauline Jones Luong and Erika Weinthal, 'The NGO paradox: democratic goals and non-democratic outcomes in Kazakhstan', Europe-Asia Studies , Vol 51, No 7, 1999, pp 1267-1284;
70. Mandel, op cit, Ref 19;
71. Janine R. Wedel, Collision and Collusion. The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe 1989-1998 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001).
72. Trenholme Junghans, 'Marketing selves: constructing civil society and selfhood in post-socialist Hungary', Critique of Anthropology, Vol 21, No 4, 2001, p 383.
73. RDD, op cit, Ref 32, p 12.
74. Hobart, op cit, Ref 17, p 2.