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The reconfiguration of hydrosocial territories in rural Uzbekistan: Evidence from Samarkand Province

Madina Gazieva
School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland; madina.gazieva2@mail.dcu.ie

ABSTRACT: In recent years, Uzbekistan has embarked on an expansive agricultural modernisation programme, cast under the banner of the 'Green Economy'. Within the agriculture sector, this has entailed an overhaul of the former cotton-centred production model in favour of high-value crops and vertically integrated clusters that are irrigated using the most up-to-date technologies. This paper argues that such a process entails 'hydrosocial re-territorialisation', which is characterised by a shift from horizontal, socially mediated surface-flow interdependencies to vertical and individualised groundwater access. Using the case of the pseudonymised village 'Dostlik' in Samarkand Province, the paper looks at local manifestations of Uzbekistan’s current hydro-agrarian overhaul, arguing that hydrosocial re-territorialisation – by facilitating water grabbing – becomes the locus of agrarian change, experienced as 'slow violence' by rural residents. The effects are felt most acutely by scattered, informal homestead farmers who must continually dig deeper wells to irrigate their plots.

KEYWORDS: Political ecology of water, hydrosocial territories, slow violence, Green Economy, homestead farmers, Uzbekistan