Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the condition of chronically homeless and unemployed populations in southern Kyrgyzstan, many struggling with opioid and alcohol addiction. In the face of political, economic, and social exclusion, these marginalized groups both draw on and challenge normative scripts of the moral economy to access care and claim belonging. In so doing, they demonstrate the sometimes surprising malleability of seemingly entrenched relational formations in a region that is often glossed as a site of strong patriarchal families, clan identity, and rigid ethnic categories. My paper follows the story of a man I call Ivan, to explore how kinship is claimed and reframed by those who are socially disembedded in order to receive shelter, welfare, and care. Their practices and strategies reveal the simultaneous ambivalence and promise offered by intimate attachments to reshape the terms of belonging in the post-socialist context.