Informality assignments
Assignment 1
How did the studies of informal practices develop and contribute to the studies of the postcommunist transformation? You can choose your own practice, theme, area, discipline, sector and investigate in which context informal practices have been discussed in that field.
| Example | |
|---|---|
| Name of the practice | Blat |
| Give definition | Use of personal contacts for getting things done |
| How universal is it? | Associated with economy of shortage |
| In which countries/industries/ contexts is it spread? | Spread in the countries of former Soviet Union |
| Identify analogous practices, named differently in different countries | Guanxi in China, wasta in the Middle East, pituto in Chili, kombinowanje in Poland |
| How does it function? | By personalizing bureaucracies, by developing personal networks/social capital that can be converted in various forms of benefit (time, convenience, access to limited resources etc.) |
| How does it relate to other informal practices (discuss similarities and differences if appropriate) | See article on comparison of blat and guanxi (Ledeneva 2008). See also comparion of blat (for personal consumption) and tolkachi (for the benefit of the firm of plan completion in the Soviet planned system) (Ledeneva 1998) |
| Indicate key sources in which it is analysed? | Mi Lenning on blat in postcommunist societies (2010), Mayfair Yang on guanxi (1995), Rehn, A./Taalas, S. (2004) |
| Provide abstract of the best article/book/source (from Amazon or JSTOR) | Website on blat that sums up the argument and gives example is: |
| What are the implications of the chosen practice for politics/economy/ society? | Blat is the reverse side of the overcontrolling center, it subverts but also supports the institutional framework within which it develops |
| Which other practices is it linked with? | Patronage, mutual help, exchange |
| Which method was or can be used for researching this practice? | Ethnography, public opinion polls, in-depth interviews |
| Give examples of the practice | One could buy goods in short supply (once a TV or a fridge) by finding connections to a gatekeeper |
| How can the practice be measured? | Perception of the practice can be. |
| How visible the practice is in a society? | The practices used to be both ‘unsocial’ and ‘legitimate.’ Few written sources in the Soviet Union, but many more since its collapse. |