Collective Identities and Patronage Networks in Southern Tajikistan

Book excerpt: In the post-Soviet Tajikistan, rural people have experienced rapid and painful changes due to both the increasing political and economic inequalities and the globalization processes of political Islam, labor migration, and development interventions. In such a situation, state elites, religious notables, and their local and international allies take joint actions to prevent another civil clash. As a part of their efforts, they highlight local people's family, communal, and Islamic identities and norms. This dual job of the elites is to protect their "modern" power by "traditional" means. This book - based on the author's PhD study - examines the social identities that have emerged in post-Soviet southern Tajikistan. (Series: ZEF Development Studies - Vol. 24)