Global Informality Project
Discover the world’s open secrets, unwritten rules and hidden practices
The Global Informality Project publishes a leading online resource for 'ways of getting things done.' The online encyclopaedia and the published volumes of invisible, yet powerful informal practices are made possible by a remarkable collaboration of scholars from five continents.
- The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 3: A hitchhiker’s guide to informal problem-solving in human life is now available to download from the UCL Press website. Book launch events for Volume 3 of the Encyclopaedia here
- Thanks to the collaboration with the World Economic Forum Strategic Intelligence team and input of the MARKETS researchers, we have published the Informality map
- See our latest Newsletter
- See our new Open Call on Informal Art
Read the most recent entries in the online encyclopaedia:
- 20 July 2026: Ne nash chelovek
- 21 June 2026: Palaver-settling (West and Central Africa)
- 12 May 2026: Side Hustles via Social Media (Oman, Kuwait and the Gulf)
| ANTICORRP EU’s FP7 Grant No. 290529, ‘Anticorruption Policies Revisited: Global Trends and European Responses to the Challenges of Corruption.’ | |
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INFORM has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693537. |
| MARKETS EU’s MSCA-ITN project 861034 ‘Mapping Uncertainties, Challenges and Future Opportunities of Emerging Markets: Informal Barriers, Business Environments and Future Trends in Eastern Europe, The Caucasus and Central Asia.’ |
The authors have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this work.
The content of The Global Encyclopadia of Informality is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). All rights are reserved for all other content on this website, including all new entries.
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