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Abstract:

Title: Corruption and Social Norms in Central Asia

Patrik Olsson, Department of Sociology of Law

Abstract

The proposed study concerns the existence of corruption from a socio-legal point of departure with an in-depth analysis of its prevalence and growth in our societies. Law is an essential form of social control in every social system, and we find law and legal requirements everywhere we look, considering that law covers a large spectrum of our lives, anything from insignificant matters to profound parts. Exploring corruption from a sociology of law perspective is particularly intriguing given that it enables us to study extra-legal practices regarding the legal system and its possibilities/limitations and dependence on the surrounding community. Particularly, it enables us to examine conformity, deviance, crime and social control functions where the study of corruption becomes noteworthy.

To study corruption, we suggest the need to focus on the relationship between law and social norms, asking questions such as what happens when crime and/or corruption become an integral part of everyday life. Should we understand corruption as a normative and social construction that is part of human nature and inevitable in our daily interactions? These processes will be explored in the context of Central Asia, namely in Uzbekistan, and we will rely on an ethnographic study of informality conducted in the Fergana region and Tashkent city.