Kyrgyzstan’s informal settlements: yntymak and the emergence of politics in place

This article explores the intersections of theory and community knowledge, experiences and imagination to illustrate how Kyrgyzstan's informal settlements contest both normative politics and current global security practices. Instead of viewing informal settlements or the Kyrgyzstani state as disparate objects on and by which security is respectively imposed and enacted, how security differences are pronounced, circulated, resisted and reformulated through Rancierian politics is examined. In this process, the Kyrgyz community-relational concept of yntymak is brought forth as a vital practice of organization and place-making in and against adversarial attempts at governance. Reconfiguring politics around specific community practices exposes the utilitarian shortcomings of neoliberal governance methods and typical conceptions of security.