Title: Local politics in Afghanistan :
Authors: Schetter, Conrad J.
Date: 2013
Publisher: Hurst & Co.,
Physical description: xxii, 281 pages : map ; 23 cm
Language: English
LC classification: J
Abstract: From the nineteenth century to today, Afghanistan has contended with relentless foreign interventions and domestic political failures. External powers -- such as British India, the Soviet Union, Pakistan, and NATO -- have egregiously interfered in local affairs, and various Afghan governments, whether monarchical, Communist, Islamist, and ostensibly democratic, have meddled disastrously with the social order. The Afghan population nevertheless remains robustly resilient in the face of these upheavals, finding concrete ways to handle external influences while preserving the most valuable aspects of their political system. By shedding light on the dynamics of this phenomenon, the essays in this volume clarify both the complexities of Afghanistan's local political structure and the ways in which outside intervention either disturbs or reinforces the local social order. By freeing local politics from the false binary of romanticization and demonization, this collection provides a richer understanding of Afghan society and the role of social factors -- such as trust, solidarity, reciprocity, and patronage -- in the promotion of rational political objectives. The collection also explores the impact of intermediaries and local forums, such as "jirgas" and "shura," as they negotiate between local actors and external interventionists. -- Provided by publisher.
Contents: Centre-periphery relations in Afghanistan / Nazif Shahrani -- Jirga, shura and community development councils: village institutions and state interface / Christine Noelle-Karimi -- The consistency of patronage: networks and powerbrokers of the 'Arzbegi Clan' in Kunduz / Andreas Wilde -- Local politics and the Taliban / Antonio Giustozzi -- Reputation, violence and buzkashi / Whitney Azoy -- The state, intermediaries and 'licit' corruption: local politics in Northern Afghanistan in the sixties and seventies / Micheline Centlivres-Demont and Pierre Centlivres -- Continuities and changes in local politics in Northern Afghanistan / Thomas Barfield -- Trust, friendship and transversal ties of cooperation among Afghans / Alessandro Monsutti -- Perspectives, aspirations and constraints: how to do politics in off-centre Affghanistan / Ingeborg Baldauf -- Reciprocity and participation: microcredit and informal credits in rural Afghanistan / Erna Andersen -- Flows of suspicion: corruption and kinship in Kabul / Anila Daulatzai -- Drugs and (dis)order: opium economy, political settlements and state-building in Afghanistan / Jonathan Goodhand and David Mansfield -- Perspectives of local violence: revenge, mediation and conflict resolution / Arne Strand -- Constructing the image of a state: local realities and international intervention in north-east Afghanistan / Katja Mielke -- Afterword: Trajectories of local politics in Afghanistan / Conrad Schetter.
Subject headings (LCSH): Afghanistan--Politics and government--2001-; Afghanistan--Politics and government.; Intervention (International law); Local government--Afghanistan.; Social structure--Afghanistan.