Tajikistan on the Move is an important collection of studies. While Tajikistan tends to be described as a stagnant and static place, this book, as the title indicates, shows the country on the move. The picture of Tajikistan that emerges from the volume reveals motion, dynamic changes, and a vibrant society. The volume’s contributors highlight points of view and aspirations guiding various actors on the ground—political elites, local communities, and labor migrants. Through that, instead of describing the country through the prism of problems and social vulnerabilities, they offer a nuanced analysis of local political and societal changes occurring in the recent years, in regional and global contexts.
The book is organized into three sections, with each of them focusing on distinct yet interrelated aspects. The first part discusses issues related to the government and governance and features four chapters. In an opening contribution, Jesse Driscoll analyzes the nature of legitimacy and legitimation practices of the Tajik government after the civil war (1992–1997). In turn, John Heathershaw and Parviz Mullojanov elaborate on conflict management strategies in the country in relation to the economic structure, centralization of the political space, and official narratives. Edward Lemon analyzes the government’s practices of managing the opposition outside the country’s borders. Finally, Kirill Nourzhanov unpacks the logic behind Tajikistan’s multi-vector foreign policy and in a novel way describes popular perceptions of great powers.
The second part analyzes the contemporary societal fabric of the country. Here, Brent Hierman describes donor-fostered land reform policies and practices in the country and their unintended consequences and a gendered impact on farmers. The chapter written by Suzanne Levi-Sanchez explores the meaning of mahalla in present-day Tajikistan, highlighting its position at an interaction of bottom-up local governance initiatives and top-down state-building attempts. Sophie Hohmann analyzes tensions resulting from diverging approaches between the donor community and local actors in tackling drug addiction. Michele Commercio examines the rise of polygyny in the current economic context of the country and mass labor emigration of men, at the same time highlighting the agency of women who agree to become second wives.
The third and last part of the volume focuses on memory, identity, and change. Tim Epkenhans’s chapter meticulously reconstructs changing official narratives about the Tajik civil war and commemoration practices. The two final contributions focus on Tajik labor migration to Russia. While Hafiz Boboyorov depicts migrants’ “securityscapes,” namely everyday practices that allow them to both reduce chances of physical abuse and tackle existential insecurities related to their transnational lives, Sophie Roche brilliantly describes the role that Islam plays in everyday life of Tajik migrants working in Moscow’s bazaars and shows how religion interplays with economic activities.
As demonstrated by this description, the volume, edited by Marlene Laruelle, features contributions written by established researchers of Tajikistan and Central Asia more broadly. It is also noteworthy that the authors represent different academic traditions, including British, American, German, and Australian academia. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach, gathering contributions rooted in political science and international relations, history, Islamic studies, sociology, and anthropology. This approach allows diverse insights to emerge and offers a multilevel analysis, at the same time making the book a pleasure to read. Notably, besides an empirical richness, several chapters build upon and further refine various theoretical concepts, including neopatromonialism (Driscoll), authoritarian conflict management (Heathershaw and Mullojanov), extraterritorial security (Lemon), and securityscapes (Boboyorov).
While this fresh book will undoubtedly become a key source to understand contemporary Tajikistan for English speakers, I would like to indicate my two main points of contention. First, in the Introduction, we read “From the end of the civil war to around 2013, the country opened up to international scholars and partnerships between Western and local institutions.… This openness came under threat from the early 2010 and dramatically deteriorated in 2013–2014” (xvi–xvii). This point is raised, and yet, it remains largely unexplored throughout any of the chapters. Importantly, most contributions in this volume extensively draw upon intensive field research in Tajikistan, conducted over long periods of time and involving interactions with local communities, experts, and political elites. While most authors include short explanations in their chapters with regard to methods of data collection, it would be welcome—and particularly valuable for younger researchers—if they elaborated more in depth on the nature of their engagement with the country. This could include a reflection on any particular difficulties related to the choice of specific research questions and accompanying field research, as well as strategies which they developed to bypass these challenges and which allowed them to build durable and meaningful ties with various actors on the ground. This would allow the book to offer not only an empirical contribution on political and societal transformations in Tajikistan, but also make a deeper methodological contribution regarding field research on Central Asia and more broadly the post-Soviet region, and preferably even make a nuanced epistemological argument, beyond stating that the country’s openness to host foreign researchers is deteriorating.
Second, it is striking that out of 11 chapters, only one (Boboyorov) is written by and one (Mullojanov) coauthored by Tajik authors. There are several prominent and promising Tajik historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists working both in the country and abroad. To mention just a few, Zulfiya Bakhtibekova, Shamsiddin Karimov, Sofiya Kasymova, Abdughani Mamadazimov, Saodat Olimova, Muzaffar Olimov, and Zulaikho Usmonova work in Tajikistan; Malika Bahovadinova, Khushbakht Hojiev, Mehmonsho Sharifov, and Jafar Usmanov are affiliated with various European academies; Alisher Latypov, Shahnoza Nozimova, and Zamira Yusufjonova-Abman work in the United States; and Nargis Nurulla-Khojaeva, Tohir Kalandarov, and Zumrad Kataeva work in Russia. This noninclusion of Tajik social scientists in such an important collection invites reflection on who produces knowledge on the country, and what kind of knowledge. Is it a priori assumed that only westerners can produce “free,” “critical,” and “good quality” knowledge about Tajikistan? Although it is impossible to judge a book for what it is not, we can still imagine it alternatively. What would the move, which is at the center of the book, look like if more Tajik authors were invited to contribute to this crucial volume?
