The reinvention of agricultural service organisations in Uzbekistan : a machine-tractor park in the Khorezm Region

As part of the ongoing process of agricultural transformation in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, agricultural service organisations are undergoing a process of reinventing themselves. This paper aims to analyse this process by offering empirical insight into a machine-tractor-park (MTP) in the Khorezm region, Western Uzbekistan. In Khorezm, the ongoing process of agricultural transformation has resulted in unclearly defined and new social functions for the MTP, while former (Soviet) social functions associated with it have not entirely been dismissed. Consequently, the MTP has had to reinvent itself in terms of its goals, strategies, management style, way of working and thinking, and its overall role, function and responsibility in society.