Item Details
Skip Navigation Links
   ActiveUsers:4012Hits:20927591Skip Navigation Links
Show My Basket
Contact Us
IDSA Web Site
Ask Us
Today's News
HelpExpand Help
Advanced search

In Basket
  Journal Article   Journal Article
 

ID124156
Title ProperNexuses of knowledge and power in Afghanistan
Other Title Informationthe rise and fall of the informal justice assemblage
LanguageENG
AuthorWimpelmann, Torunn
Publication2013.
Summary / Abstract (Note)This article explores Western attempts to strengthen mechanisms of informal justice in Afghanistan. It traces the origins and evolution of an 'informal justice assemblage': the constellation of specific expert discourses, institutional practices, and strategic considerations that made it possible and plausible that Western actors should promote and work with informal processes of justice. The article problematizes expert statements that posit that working with informal justice is somehow more 'Afghan-led' and less of an outside imposition than supporting the country's formal justice system. To the contrary, this article details how - discursively and institutionally - academic authority about what is locally appropriate in practice served to foreclose national debate and scrutiny about the organization and administration of justice. This amounted to a net erosion of accountability, reinforced by the subsequent militarization of the justice sector and governance more broadly. In conclusion, the article calls for greater attention to the broader fields of power in which claims of sensitivity to the local sentiments and reality in Afghanistan are made.
`In' analytical NoteCentral Asian Survey Vol. 32, No.3; Sep 2013: p.406-422
Journal SourceCentral Asian Survey Vol. 32, No.3; Sep 2013: p.406-422
Key WordsAfghanistan ;  Informal Justice ;  Expert Rule ;  Justice Reform ;  Militarization


 
 
Media / Other Links  Full Text