ABSTRACT
The book will start with an introductory chapter outlining the main research problem, aims, questions, main themes, and arguments of the book. The chapter consists of three sections. The first section features a few vignettes from our ethnographic field research in Tashkent city and Fergana Valley with the purpose of providing an initial understanding of the nature of the research problem and objectives. The second section defines the conceptual, methodological, ethical, and definitional challenges of studying (anti)corruption. It discusses the book's key contributions to (anti)corruption literature and socio-legal studies. Then, we will present the key argument of the book—that the measures and tools adopted to understand and combat corruption should go beyond a merely economistic view and (Western-centric) legal centralistic approaches and that to convince people to act within the realms of state law, a structure replacing not only economic opportunity but also reducing the gap between state law and society's informal norms and rules (‘living law’) should be put into place. As such, we argue for the necessity to study (anti)corruption beyond the established paradigms and thereby focus on society's informal norms and ‘non-monetary currencies’ as a lens to understand the emergence, explanation, persistence, and ubiquitousness of corruption.
