Communal self-governance as an alternative to neoliberal governance: proposing a post-development approach to EU resilience-building in Central Asia

ABSTRACT

In the European Union’s (EU) new Strategy for Central Asia, which was launched in May 2019, boosting the resilience of Central Asian societies is singled out as a key priority. Drawing on post-development thinking, this article argues that if the EU is serious about promoting resilience to empower ‘the local’ and contribute towards a truly sustainable future for the societies of Central Asian countries, then the EU will need to embrace a de-centred, post-neoliberal approach to resilience. This implies that the EU would have to accept ‘the other’ – in this case, the Central Asian societies – for what they are and advocate home-grown self-organization based on a deep understanding of the local meaning of good life and local knowledge about the available resources. Empirical illustrations to substantiate this claim are drawn from a concrete case, namely the mahalla in Uzbekistan.

KEYWORDS:

• governance promotion
• resilience
• European Union
• Central Asia
• mahalla

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 As operationalized by the EU for its development policy in 2004, the EU’s understanding of good governance includes six components: democratization and elections; the promotion and protection of human rights; strengthening of the rule of law; enhancement of the role of civil society; the reform of public administration, the civil service and public finance management; and decentralization and capacity-building of local government (EuropeAid Cooperation Office 2004).

2 The EU’s resilience approach is resonant of a similar trend among several international organizations, including the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank. In fact, in operationalizing its approach, the EU even draws inspiration from the UN (Joseph and Juncos 2019, 1000).

3 For the role of the Mahallas in Tajikistan, see, for example, Boboyorov (2013) and Cieślewska (2015).

4 Mahalla committees are headed by senior local residents who are nominated and paid for by the state. According to Waite (1997, 227), they are ‘likely to have a degree of legitimacy in [their] own community, derived from traditional respect for elders, and in many places, growing links with the local mosque’.