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. |
Assignment 2
Explore a range of possible disciplines, contexts and approaches to the issues of informality. Analyse contexts and implications of the study of informality in the literature on the basis of google scholar cross referencing. Make a summary for a chosen field.
| Example | |
|---|---|
| Name of the field/discipline | Urban studies, development studies |
| Give definition | Informality is associated with illegal settlements in urban development |
| How universal is it? | Associated with poverty, city planning, development issues, limited access to infrastructure |
| In which countries/industries/ contexts is it spread? | Spread in the countries of Latin America, Asia etc. |
| Identify analogous practices, named differently in different countries | Ab bashi – Afghanistan |
| How does it function? | Give example, case here |
| How does it relate to other informal practices (discuss similarities and differences if appropriate) | Similarity is limited access to resources (water, sanitation), poverty levels, economic and political frameworks. Differences could be of socio-historical nature |
| Indicate key sources in which it is analysed? | Roy, A. ‘Why India cannot plan its cities: informality, insurgence and the idiom of urbanization,’ Planning theory, 2009. |
| Provide abstract of the best article/book/source (from Amazon or JSTOR) | ... The state is an informalized entity, or informality from above. I argue that informality has to be understood not as a grassroots phenomenon, but rather as a site of extra-legal discipline, continuous with formal systems of regulation (Roy, 2003). ... |
| What are the implications of the chosen understanding of informality for politics/economy/ society? | “Informality from the above” reassesses the notion of the state |
| Which other concepts is it linked with? | “Hybrid formal” |
| Which method was or can be used for researching this practice? | Ethnography, city planning and urban policy analysis |
| Give examples of the practice | Ghana, China – give examples |
| How can the informality be measured? | Size of informal settlements |
Informality simulation game
Coming soon.