Abstract

Most scholars of contentious literature expect the main means of contestation in Kyrgyzstan to be found on the streets and with the use of violence on provincial roads. From two revolutions to daily demonstrations the protest phenomenon came to be associated with radical means hence casting doubts about their potential for democratization. My ethnographic observations, however, indicate the presence of other emerging forms of social contestation. The fieldwork I conducted in Jalal-Abad province at a state owned factory Kyrgyzneftegaz, which became a highly contentious place between the work collective and party politics between 2010 and 2013, indicates the presence of institutionalized forms of contestation. In this paper I would like to illustrate the co-existence of formal and informal mechanisms of political participation in Kyrgyzstan.