Research objectives
MOCCA team will conduct empirical studies in Central Asia and examine (anti-) corruption laws and policies adopted (“law in books”) and how they are applied and work in real-life situations (“living in action”).
- Global anti-corruption laws, institutions, indicators, and discourses: explore the politics, power relations, indicators, and discourses that underlie the global anti-corruption industry, and examine their impact on legal and institutional developments and governance practices in Central Asia.
- Domestic (macro/central level) institutions, anti-corruption laws, policies and initiatives: investigate the domestic institutional and legal frameworks that facilitate or impair the (anti-) corruption environment and how the domestic actors function and respond to pressures from external actors (international organisations, international anti-corruption NGOs, EU, US, Russia, China and multinational corporations).
- Meso-level norms, practices and actors: explore the role and strategies of non-state actors (e.g., civil society institutions, business actors) and informal institutions and how they accept, reject or renegotiate the norms, practices and rules of domestic regulatory environments in Central Asia.
- Micro-level (everyday) social norms and practices: focus on (local) micro-level level actors and dynamics and probes the ways in which ordinary people and low-level state officials move between ethics, legality, and other modes of evaluation in forming judgment about their own and others’ actions and attitudes.