RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTIVISTS AND MAHALLA COMMITTEES: FROM HASHAR TO PARTICIPATORY ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN TASHKENT
Keywords:
Environmental justice, participation, mahalla, hashar, urban ecology, Tashkent, winter smog, heat island, engaged anthropology, risk perception.Abstract
The article proposes an applied framework for shifting Tashkent’s environmental activism from the hashar model toward practices of participatory environmental justice. Drawing on four case studies — winter smog, the degradation of green spaces, waste landfills, and the urban heat island — the author distinguishes mobilization from participation and shows that hashar, while remaining on the lower rungs of S. Arnstein’s “ladder of citizen participation,” depoliticizes the environmental problem by reducing it to a matter of cleanliness. Building on the right to a favorable environment enshrined in the Constitution and on state strategies for sustainable development, the article formulates realistic recommendations — separately for mahalla committees and for activists — implementable through already existing institutions (the “Initiative Budget,” the mahalla budget, the tree registry, complaint channels), and it outlines the role of engaged environmental anthropology as a practice of knowledge co-production.
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