Informal practices in post-Communist societies 2021-2022

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Course syllabus

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON School of Slavonic and East European Studies

SEES091 Informal Practices in Post-Communist Societies 2021-2022 MA course 2021-2022, Term 1 Online (20 contact hours, 15 credits)

Professor Alena Ledeneva

Form of assessment: one 3,000 words essay Please submit ELECTRONIC COPY THROUGH MOODLE/TURNITIN Deadline: 11 February 2022, 15.00

Aims

DISCOVER the pervasive nature of informality;
IDENTIFY informal practices in post-communist societies and globally;
REFLECT on the ways of their identification;
ANALYSE political, legal, economic and social roots of informal practices;
COMPARE impact of informal practices in different regions of the world.

Objectives

EXPLORE the Global Informality Project data set at www.in-formality.com;
LEARN about theoretical approaches and research methods for informality;
IMPROVE skills of searching for and working with academic literature in the library and online;
DEMONSTRATE ability to critically assess academic texts and to present arguments in a clear and structured form;
DEVELOP an in-depth knowledge on the topic selected for the examination essay;
ATTEMPT to create an encyclopaedia entry of publishable quality (on a particular practice) or exercise pattern recognition through a comparative analysis of existing entries.

Teaching and Learning Methods

The course work is organised as a SERIES OF SEMINARS, each based on four presentations by students and a group discussion to follow. Presentations are based on the readings provided for each theme and can include further sources found on Internet (via electronic databases). Discussions are related to informal practices in post-communist societies, with a comparative angle where possible.

Examination

The course is assessed 100% by coursework. ONE essay 3,000 words in length each should be written in accordance with the requirements outlined in the MA Handbook and submitted by the agreed deadline. An electronic copy should be submitted through the Turnitin (see Moodle). The essays are double-marked and examined externally. The best essays may be published as part of the Global Informality Project/Informality Wiki.

Basic resources

Cases of informal practices in Russia/Background reading

Textbook: Ledeneva, A. (2018) Global Encylopaedia of Informality. London: UCL Press.
Ledeneva, A. (1998) Russia's Economy of Favours: Blat, Networking and Informal Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ledeneva, A. V. (2006) How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Ledeneva, A.V. (2013) Can Russia Modernise. Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ledeneva, A. (2008) 'Telephone Justice in Russia'. Post-Soviet Affairs, 24(4), 324-350.
Ledeneva, A. (2008) ‘Blat and Guanxi: Comparative Analysis of Informal Practices in Russia and China,’ Comparative Studies in Society and History Vol. 50(1), January 2008, pp. 118-141.

Cases from all five continents are available on the Online Encyclopaedia of Informality (www.in-formality.com) Look out for most cited sources on informality on google scholar.

Class 1: Why study informality? How to assess the importance of informal practices across time, area and discipline? The key perspectives on informality

Finding resources

Introductory lecture on Informality, conceptions devised to approach it and patterns emerging from the Global Informality project dataset. Discussion of difficulties of categorising informality – any model is too perfect to explain the imperfection and complexity of human societies – and its ambivalent nature

Format of presentations and handouts

Examination essays – Encyclopaedia entries as learning resources

Electronic tools for identifying informal practices: Search the web in order to find poll data, publications on informal practices in Russian and Western media accessible through the Eastview database, Lexisnexis and specifically discussions of the phenomenon; use the Google Scholar search engine and electronic journals (access via the Library catalogue). Search by keywords that are already in the Global Informality Project and browse the Global Encyclopaedia of Informality to identify equaivalent practices that are not in the collection. The challenge is to add new ones to the Global Informality Map!

Pattern recognition: Construct your own cluster of entries (see clusters in The Encyclopaedia table of contents)

Suggestions: ab bashi (informal settlements in Afghanistan) mianzi (face), bainian (new year greeting), fanju (eating together) in China; enchufe/enchufismo in Spain, pozdravleniya in Russia, search for practices representing grey zones in categorisations of age, gender, ethnicity, and religion.

Formative Assessment in Groups

First option: 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.

Identify a colloquial 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, post-socialist countries
Identify analogous practices, named differently in different countries, in the data set 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 comparions of blat (for personal consumption) and tolkachi (for the benefit of the firm of plan completion in the Soviet planned system), blat and bribery, blat and corruption (Ledeneva 1998)
Indicate key/most recent sources in which it is analysed? Horak, S., Afiouni, F., Bian, Y., Ledeneva, A., Muratbekova-Touron, M. and Fey, C.F., 2020. Informal networks: Dark sides, bright sides, and unexplored dimensions. Management and Organization Review, 16(3), pp.511-542.

Karhunen, P., Kosonen, R., McCarthy, D.J. and Puffer, S.M., 2018. The darker side of social networks in transforming economies: Corrupt exchange in Chinese Guanxi and Russian Blat/Svyazi. Management and Organization Review, 14(2), pp.395-419. Rodgers, P., Vershinina, N., Williams, C.C. and Theodorakopoulos, N., 2019. Leveraging symbolic capital: the use of blat networks across transnational spaces. Global Networks, 19(1), pp.119-136. Provide abstract of the best article/book/source (from Amazon or JSTOR) Website on blat that sums up the argument and gives example: http://in-formality.com/wiki/index.php?title=Blat_(Russia) http://kommunalka.colgate.edu/cfm/essays.cfm?ClipID=373&TourID=900 https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/rees-577-fall2016/2016/10/18/the-importance-of-blats-in-soviet-everyday-life/

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 measured (see Ledeneva’s From Russia With Blat in Social Research).
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.


Second option (Creating Your Cluster for the Volume 3 Table of Contents)

2) Alternatively, you can explore comparative perspective or clustering practices, following the way informal practices are organized in The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality. Try to find your own way of clustering practices (pattern recognition). Analyse similarities and differences of similar practices in your cluster, aim to find comparative angles, note contexts and implications. Make an electronic summary for your cluster or populate a stage in human biography as suggested in ToC draft (available from Moodle):

Chose a category for clustering An economy of favours
Give definition Personalised sets of strategies for coping with constraints (shortages of goods and services, red tape etc.) or for seeking competitive advantage (employment, career development etc.)
How universal is it? Associated with poverty, limited access to infrastructure, post-socialism but also found in developed societies in Europe and Asia. Patterns of reaching our in the US and pulling strings I the UK are fairly universal.
In which countries/industries/contexts is it spread? Spread in the countries of Latin America, Asia etc. (see Chapter 1 in The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality)
Identify analogous practices, named differently in different countries I have found 21 practices for the Chapter 1 cluster and placed some similar practices into other clusters where they also belong and have a key word ‘economy of favours’
How does it function? Identify the principles of an economy of favours, if possible, say: use of friends, mediation, brokerage
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 Explore the role of ethnicity, regional factors, religion, age, gender.

Indicate key sources in which it is analysed? See Preface by Alena Ledeneva, Introduction by David Henig/ Nicolette Macovicky and Conclusion by Florence Weber in Part I of The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality.
Provide abstract of the best article/book/source (from Amazon or JSTOR) that is not in your reading list but relevant to the categorization you are exploring... 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 in your cluster for politics/economy/society? Connivance of the state, impossibility for the political regime to survive without turning a blind eye to economies of favours
Which other concepts is it linked with? Connections, social ties, informal networks
Which method was or can be used for researching practices in your cluster? Ethnography, sociological research, opinion polls, mass media and social media content analysis
How can you visualize the pattern you’ve identified? A triangle, mediation of needs and wants
How can the informality be measured? Size of informal networks and cost of maintaining them

Class 2: Reports on formative assignment

Please upload your formative assessment in the relevant folder in Class 2. Think of an image to use as part of the presentation, if possible. Be prepared to present briefly (3-4 minutes).

Class 3: The informal made visible - Theoretical approaches and research methods for the hidden

It may seem that formal rules/ organisations/ institutions are central to the operations of modern societies. These are certainly central in social sciences analyses (especially political sciences). However, historians would argue that informal norms have primacy over formal ones, as they have longer period of formation and are much more difficult to change. In some ways, informal norms constitute the foundation of formal norms (codified, legalised, declared). This class will look into the ways in which the taken for granted informal norms and forms of behaviour become visible, articulated, researched.

The nature of the hidden will be discussed, as will be the process of revealing/ concealing. JS Scott’s “invisible transcripts” and his ethnographic work on Domination and the Arts of Resistance, (Yale University Press, 1985), Weapons of the Weak, (Yale University Press 1980), Seeing Like a State (Yale University Press, 1998); Two Cheers for Anarchism (Princeton Press, 2013) are an essential read. See for example a special issue on his The Art of Not Being Governed (2009) in Perspectives on Politics, 9(1), March 2011,pp.79-83.

The waves of interest to informality and the existing blind spots of disciplinary analyses (for example, some informal practices emerge and can be changed easily) are in focus.

Modelling informality through cross-disciplinary perspecitives, and cross-area studies approaches (INFORM project).

Reading list for Class 3

Blundo, G., de Sardan, J-P.O. (eds.) (2006) Everyday Corruption and the State: Citizens and Public Officials in Africa, Zed Books. Chapter 1,4.

  • Giordano, C., Hayoz, N. (eds) Informality in Eastern Europe: Structures, Political Cultures and Social Practices. Reihe: Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe - Band 11. Chapters by C. Giordano.

Kwang-kuo Hwang (1987) ‘Face and Favor: The Chinese Power Game,’ The American Journal of Sociology, 92(4): 944-974. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2780044

  • Ledeneva,A. (2011) ‘Open Secrets and Knowing Smiles,’ East European Politics and Societies, 25(04), pp.720-736.

Misztal, B. (1999) Informality: Social Theory and Contemporary Practice. Routledge. Chs 1,2,3,7,8.

  • Polese, A. (2021) ‘What is informality? Reflections on “the art of bypassing the state” and what Eurasian studies can contribute to global debates on informality,’ Eurasian Geography and Economics.

Steenberg, R. (2016) ‘The art of not seeing like a state. On the ideology of ‘informality’ in Journal of Contemporary Central and eastern europe, 24(3), pp.293-306.

  • Yang, M.M. (1994) Gifts, Favours and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.

Van Assche, K., Shtaltovna, A., & Hornidge, A. K. (2013). Visible and Invisible Informalities and Institutional Transformation in the Transition Countries of Georgia, Romania, and Uzbekistan. Informality in Eastern Europe: Structures, Political Cultures and Social Practices, 11, 89-118.

Class 4: How can informality be measured?

The measurability is largely associated with the size of informal economy but the term only ‘became current in the 1970s as a label for economic activities which take place outside the framework of [corporate public and private sector establishments]. It arose at first in response to the proliferation of self-employment and casual labour in Third World cities; but later the expression came to be used with reference to societies like Britain, where it competed with other adjectives describing deindustrialization – the “hidden”, “underground”, “black” economy, and so on’ (Hart 1987: 54). Reputation of informality as a jargon word has not helped the informal economy/sector to acquire’ conceptual importance. Its relationship to formality is often understood as based on “size (large-scale/small-scale), productivity (high/low), visibility (enumerated/unenumerated), pattern of rewards (wages/self-employment), market conditions (monopoly/competitive)” etc. (ibid. :56). In this class we will catalogue the existing measures of informality and assess their conceptual implications. For example, the GREY project (http://www.grey-project.group.shef.ac.uk/) has suggested that the informal economy may be higher the broader is the gap between individual and state morality. In other words, “where a citizen does not see the advantage of contributing to state development, or when s/he perceives the state as unreliable, not giving but only taking, or not giving enough, they are more likely to leave the game”. In this respect, economic actors may even perceive as “moral” not contributing to the state (and thus doing something stigmatised by state morality). Indeed, there is an increasing amount of work in the informal economy and the emergence of individual accounts that contrast with a state-led view on individual morality (see, among others, Van Schendel & Abrahams, 2005; Wanner, 2005, Morris, 2012; Morris & Polese, 2014; Polese & Rodgers, 2011, Kubik and Linch 2013).

Reading list for Class 4

  • See latest reports on informal economy ad explore clusters on street vending, informal transportation on the Online Encyclopaedia of Informality, www.in-formality.com)

Barsukova S., Radaev V. (2012) ’Informal Economy in Russia: A Brief Overview’, in Economic sociology - The European electronic newsletter. 13(2): 4-12. http://publications.hse.ru/articles/70677717 de Soto, H. (1982) The Other Path.

  • Hart, K. (1973). Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana. The journal of modern African studies, 11(1), 61-89.
  • Hart, K. (2009) On the Informal Economy: The Political History of an Ethnographic Concept,’ Universite Libre de Bruxelles Working papers CEB, available as pdf on Academia.edu and google scholar.
  • Morris, J. and Polese, A. (2013) The Informal Post-Socialist Economy: Embedded Practices and Livelihoods. London: Routledge.

La Porta, R., Shleifer, A. (2008) “The Unofficial Economy and Economic Development,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall, pp. 275-363, including “Comments and Discussion,” pp. 353-63.

  • Polese,A. and J. Morris (2015) Informal Economies in Post-Socialist Spaces. Palgrave – Macmillan.

Portes,A., Castells, M. and L.A. Benton (eds.) (1989) The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Choose any chapter that seems interesting.

Class 5: Networks - What do contacts really do? Why weak ties are strong? From survival and trust to social media

In this class we will attempt to solve the ‘use of contacts’ puzzle. Although forms of corruption in the TI typology include nepotism, patron-client relationships, gifts, hospitality, revolving doors, there are few measurements that could help compare such practices. So far, the TI has relied on expert surveys. In 2013, the Global Corruption Barometer has introduced a question “In your dealings with the public sector, how important are personal contacts/relationships to get things done?”(find data on Moodle). But what do numbers for 101 countries mean and tell? Are there differences in which networks are used in different cultures? Are networks informal? Why are they associated with survival? Can networks be formal, generated, initiated? In which way are social media networks different? If networks have the potential for corrupt use why do we facilitate them? How do concepts (networks, social capital, strength of ties- language of observation) differ from the language of participants?

Reading list for Class 5

Global Corruption Barometer data on the use of contacts in over 100 countries at https://www.transparency.org/gcb2013

Ahn, T.K. and Ostrom, E., 2002, August. Social capital and the second-generation theories of collective action: An analytical approach to the forms of social capital. In annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, 29 (available online).

  • Granovetter, M. (1973) ‘The strength of weak ties’, American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380 and Granovetter, M, (1982) ‘The Strength of weak Ties: A Network Theory revisited’ in Peter Marsden and Nan Lin (eds) Social Structure and Network Analysis. London: Sage Publications.

Burt R.S. (1995) Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 8-38.

  • Coleman J.S. (1988) ‘Free Riders and Zealots: The Role of Social Networks.’ Sociological Theory, 6: 52-57.

Colliri, T., Liang Zhao (2019) ‘Analyzing the Bills-Voting Dynamics and Predicting Corruption-Convictions Among Brazilian Congressmen Through Temporal Networks,’ www.nature.com/scientificreports, 9:16754 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53252-9

Gold, T., Guthrie, D. and D. Wank (eds.) (2002) Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture, and the Changing Nature of Guanxi, New York: Cambridge University Press. Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5 & 11.

Al-Ramahi, A. (2008). Wasta in Jordan: A distinct feature of (and benefit for) Middle Eastern society. Arab Law Quarterly, 22(1), 35-62.

Duarte, F, (2011), “The Strategic Role of Charm, Simpatia and Jeitinho in Brazilian Society: A Qualitative Study,” Asian Journal of Latin American Studies 24(3), 29-48.

Dasgupta, P., & Serageldin, I. (Eds.). (2001). Social capital: a multifaceted perspective. World Bank Publications.

Ledeneva, A. (2009) “From Russia with Blat: Can Informal Networks Help Modernize Russia?” Social Research 76 (1), 257-288.

Pichler, F., & Wallace, C. (2007). Patterns of formal and informal social capital in Europe. European sociological review, 23(4), 423-435.

Tilly, C. (2007, March). Trust networks in transnational migration. In Sociological Forum, 22(1), 3-24.

Ledeneva A. (2000) in Segbers, K. Explaining Post-Soviet Patchworks. Vol. 2. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. Chapters 2,3.

De Sa, V. M. M. (2011). Internet Piracy as a hobby: what happens when the Brazilian Jeitinho meets television downloading?. Global Media Journal-Australian Edition, 5(1).

Ledeneva,A. (2000). 'Russian Hackers and Virtual Crime' in Ledeneva,A., Kurkchiyan,M. (ed.) Economic Crime in Russia. London: Kluwer Law International, 163-175.

Grant, A. (2014.) Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Class 6: Informal Governance in State-Business Relationship: Simulation game (work in groups)

Informality simulation game

Read the rules of the game and prepare to play by looking up the following sources:

Reading list for Class 6

Adachi, Y. (2010). Building Big Business in Russia: The Impact of Informal Corporate Governance Practices. London: Routledge.

Frye, T. (2002). ‘Capture or exchange? Business lobbying in Russia.’ Europe-Asia Studies, 54(7), 1017-1036.

Hosking, G. ‘Patronage and the Russian State,’ The Slavonic and East European Review, 2000, Vol. 78, No. 2, April, pp.301-320.

Hughes, J., John, P., and Sasse, G. (2002). ‘From Plan to Network: Urban elites and the Post‐communist Organisational State in Russia.’ European Journal of Political Research, 41(3), 395-420.

Kononenko, V. and Moshes, A. (eds.) (2011) Russia as a Network State: What Works in Russia When State Institutions Do Not? Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 39-61.

Minbaeva, D.B., Muratbekova-Touron, M. (2013) Clanism: Definition and Implications for Human Resource Management, Management International Review 53:109–139.

Barnett, A., Yandle, B., & Naufal, G. (2013). Regulation, trust, and cronyism in Middle Eastern societies: The simple economics of “wasta”. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 44, 41-46. Darden, Keith A. 2001. “Blackmail as a Tool of State Domination: Ukraine under Kuchma.” East European Constitutional Review 10, 2/3 (Spring/Summer), pp. 67-71.

  • Ledeneva, A. and Stanislav Shekshnia (2011). “Doing Business in Russia: Informal practices and Anti-Corruption Strategies” Russie.Nei.Visions, No.58, March. In French, English and Russian, at www.ifri.org/?page=contribution-detail&id=6474&id_provenance=97
  • Shekshnia, S., Ledeneva, A. & Denisova-Schmidt, E. (2017). Managing Business Corruption: Targeting Non-Compliant Practices in Systemically Corrupt Environments. The Slavonic and East European Review, 95(1), 151-174.

Vasileva, A. (2018) ‘Trapped in Informality: The Big Role of Small Firms in Russia’s Statist-patrimonial Capitalism’ (available on Moodle)

Class 7: Informal governance - Beyond the dichotomy of formal/informal institutions

Although I am very enthuisiastic about revolutionizing the notion of institutions defined by Douglas North as ‘rules of the game’ or humanely designed constraints of both formal and informal nature, I am not keen on the notion of informal institutions. The main reason is that the usage of this term infers a dichotomy – informal vs. formal institutions - that contradicts North’s more subtle idea. The second reason is applying the logic of formal institutions to social norms, presuming similar predictability, institutional lock-in, rule-following etc. The third reason is that formalization is presumed to be a solution, while informalisation is associated with problems. Finally, it is the ambivalence of informality that makes the formal/informal distinction rather difficult to pin down. Thus informal practices, networks, institutions (depending on the disciplinary conceptualization) can be a long-term stabilizing force that resist change, but also can be fluid, facilitating reforms, accommodating change, navigating and bending the rules, both written and unwritten. It might be useful instead to discuss the degree of visibility, regularity, predictability of informal practices amounting to the degree of institutionalization (from tactics/strategies distinction by De Certeau towards practices that have established themselves as following universal social norms and taboos). We will explore forms and patterns of informal governance that are complex and supersede clear divides into formal/informal; public/private; written/unwritten; codified-non-codified; legal/illegal; legitimate/illegitimate.

Reading list for Class 7

  • Baez Camargo, C. and Ledeneva, A. (2017) Where Does Informality Stop and Corruption Begin? Infromal Governance and the Public.Private Crossover in Mexico, Russia and Tanzania’, Slavonic and East European Review, 95(1), January, pp. 49-75.
  • de Sardan, J.P.O. 2008. Researching the Practical Norms of Real Governance in Africa, Discussion Paper 5, London: Africa Power and Politics Programme.

Akhtar, S., Aziz, Z. A., Hefner, R. W., Thani, N. N., Venardos, A., Vogel, F. E., & Warde, I. (2008). Understanding Islamic finance: Local innovation and global integration. Asia policy, 6(1), 1-14.

Christiansen,T. & Neuhold, C. (2012) International Handbook on Informal Governance. Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar. Choose a chapter of interest.

de Sardan, J. P. O. (2013). The bureaucratic mode of governance and practical norms in West Africa and beyond. In Local Politics and Contemporary Transformations in the Arab World (pp. 43-64). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

de Sardan, J.P.O. (1999) ‘A Moral Economy of Corruption in Africa?’ Journal of Modern African Studies 37 (1), 25–52.

Hein, W., & Moon, S. (2013). Informal Norms in Global Governance. Human Rights, Intellectual Property Rules and Access to Medicines. Farnhem: Ashgate.

Helmke, G. & Levitsky, S. (2004). Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda. Perspectives on Politics, 2, 4, 725-740. (available online)

Isaacs, R., & Polese, A. (2016). Nation-building and identity in the post-Soviet space: new tools and approaches. Routledge. Journal of Anthropology, Vol 66, No. 3, 2001, pp. 344-64.

  • Lauth, H. J. (2012). Informal governance and democratic theory. International handbook on informal governance, 40-64.

Ledeneva, A. (2011) 'Informality and Informal Politics' in Gill, G., Young, J. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Russian Politics and Society, London and NY: Routledge, 375-386.

Ledeneva, A. 2013. Can Russia Modernize? Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 7

Ledeneva, A. V. (2013). Russia's Practical Norms and Informal Governance: The Origins of Endemic Corruption. Social research, 80(4), 1135-1162.

North, Douglass C. (1991) ”Institutions,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5 No. 1, Winter, pp. 97-112.

Polese, A., Russo, A. and Strazzari, F. eds. (2019) Governance beyond the law: The immoral, the illegal, the criminal. Springer.

Urinboyev, Rustamjon & Polese, Abel & Svensson, Mans & Adams, Laura & Kerikmäe, Tanel. (2018). ‘Political vs Everyday Forms of Governance in Uzbekistan: the Illegal, Immoral and Illegitimate Politics and Legitimacy in Post-Soviet Eurasia’, Studies of Transition States and Societies, 10(1): 50-64.

Class 8: The ambivalence of informal practices - Are they subversive or supportive?

The research question whether the boundaries between informality and corruption, between sociability and instrumentality, between subversiveness and supportiveness can be drawn cannot be answered with the help of definitions. Analytical distinctions prove useless in the face of practices embedded in particular sets of constraints, practical norms and ‘moral economies’ (de Sardan 1999, 2008). If I am asked to give a one-word clue to identify the missing bit in the puzzle of crossing such boundaries, this is ‘ambivalence.’ In its sociological sense, ambivalence, in the definition of Robert Merton, refers to incompatible normative expectations of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour. The incompatibility is assigned to a status and the social structures that generate the circumstances in which ambivalence is embedded (Merton 1976: 6-7). The core type of sociological ambivalence puts contradictory demands upon the occupants of a status in a particular social relation. Since these norms cannot be simultaneously expressed in behaviour, they come to be expressed in an oscillation of behaviours: of detachment and compassion, of discipline and permissiveness, of personal and impersonal treatment” (Merton 1976: 8). The implications of substantive, functional or normative ambivalence are essential for understanding complexity, associated with fragmentation and failure of manageability.

Reading list for Class 8

  • Ledeneva, A. (2018) Global Encyclopaedia of Informality. London: UCL Press. Introduction and Prefaces to Parts 1-4.

Brkovic, C. (2017). Managing Ambiguity: How Clientelism, Citizenship, and Power Shape Personhood in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Berghahn Books.

Coleman, J.C. (1988) “Social capital in the creation of human capital,” American journal of sociology.

  • Portes, A. “The downside of social capital,” The American Prospect, 1996

Bourdieu, P. (1990) The Logic of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge: Polity Press. Introduction, Chapter 5

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Marcus, G. E., & Saka, E. (2006). Assemblage. Theory, culture & society, 23(2-3), 101-106.

Mansfeldová, Zdenka; Pleines, Heiko (eds) (2011) Informal relations from democratic representation to corruption: Case Studies from Central and Eastern Europe (Changing Europe), Stuttgart: Ibidem.

  • Merton, R.K. (1976) Sociological Ambivalence and Other Essays. New York, NY: The Free Press.

Muratbekova-Touron, M., Lee Park, C. and Fracarolli Nunes, M., 2021. Insider’s corruption versus outsider’s ethicality? Individual responses to conflicting institutional logics. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-29.

North, D., Wallis, J., Weingast, B. 2006. ‘A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History,’ NBER Working Paper No. 12795, December.

Pilati Rodrigues, R., Milfont, T. L., Ferreira, M. C., Porto, J. B., & Fischer, R. (2011). Brazilian jeitinho: Understanding and explaining an indigenous psychological construct. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 45(1), 29-38.

Ferreira, M. C., Fischer, R., Porto, J. B., Pilati, R., & Milfont, T. L. (2012). Unraveling the mystery of Brazilian Jeitinho: A cultural exploration of social norms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(3), 331-344.

  • Gouldner, A. (1977) ‘The norm of reciprocity,’ in Friends, Followers and Factions: a reader in political clientelism edited by Steffen W. Schmidt. Berkeley; London: University of California Press.

Makovicky., N. Henig, D. (2017) Economies of Favor after Socialism. Oxford University Press. Chs. 1,2,3. and Introduction to Chapter 1 in The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality

Ledeneva, A. in IEA Perspectives, http://rfiea.fr/articles/ambivalence-blurred-boundaries-where-informality-stops-and-corruption-begins

Ledeneva, A. (2011). “Open Secrets and Knowing Smiles,” East European Politics and Society, 25(4), November.

Leslie, I. 2013. ‘Ambivalence Is Awesome: Or is it awful?’ Slate Magazine, posted Thursday, June 13, http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/06/ambivalence_conflicted_feelings_cause_discomfort_and_creativity.html

Class 9: How to identify informal patterns? - Comparing and clustering practices across the globe

This class tackles the question to what extent different informal arrangements, structures and practices can have universal meanings, functions, forms and effects observable in all societies. We explore how informal arrangements help or hinder the workings of economies, societies, businesses. Informality exists in all societies. In most instances, it is taken for granted. Insiders come to regard them as a way of life, while outsiders remain unaware of them or believe that thay could not possibly comprehend how things “really work.” Our goal will be to demystify the informal on the one hand, but to question its banality, on the other. We attempt to classify the existing range of informal patterns, to discern supportive and subversive aspects of informality where possible, and assess whether some informal configurations are more conducive (or less damaging) to good governance, economic development and social justice. Government planning and the effective policy implementation has often been impeded by the unthinking transfer of western categories to the economic and social structures in other cultures, so the care in comparative analysis should be exercised. Try to identify patterns in the Global Encyclopaedia of Informality: simple (circle, triangle, diad) and complex.

Reading list for Class 9

Ardichvili, A., Jondle,D., Kowske,B., Cornachione, E., Li, J., Thakadipuram,T. (2012) “Ethical Cultures in Large Business Organizations in Brazil, Russia, India, and China,” Journal of Business Ethics , 105(4), 415-428.

Baez-Camargo, C. & Ledeneva, A. (2017). Where Does Informality Stop and Corruption Begin? Informal Governance and the Public/Private Crossover in Mexico, Russia and Tanzania. The Slavonic and East European Review, 95(1), 49-75.

Horak, S., Afiouni, F., Bian, Y., Ledeneva, A., Muratbekova-Touron, M. and Fey, C.F., 2020. Informal networks: Dark sides, bright sides, and unexplored dimensions. Management and Organization Review, 16(3), pp.511-542.

Hutchings, Kate and David Weir, “Guanxi and Wasta: A Comparison,” Thunderbird International Business Review , Vol. 48 No.1, January-February 2006, pp. 141-56.

Ledeneva, A. (2008) ‘Blat and Guanxi: Informal Practices in Russia and China,’ Comparative Studies in Society and History, 50(1), 118-44.

Markova, I. (2003) Dialogicality and Social representations: The Dynamics of Mind. Cambridge University Press, Ch.2 on ‘Thinking and antinomies’plus present all tables on dichotomies.

Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map: Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs.

Puffer, S. M., McCarthy, D. J., & Boisot, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship in Russia and China: The impact of formal institutional voids. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 34(3), 441-467.

Samoilenko, S., Icks, M., Shiraev, E. and Keohane, J. (2018). Routledge handbook of character assassination and reputation management. London and NY: Routledge (forthcoming in December 2018).

Zhan, J. V. (2012). Filling the gap of formal institutions: the effects of Guanxi network on corruption in reform-era China. Crime, law and social change, 58(2), 93-109.

In Russian: Ledeneva, A., 2019. Интервью с Алёной Леденёвой. Чтобы контролировать уровень неформальности, требуется прицельная терапия теневых практик. Journal of Economic Sociology, 20(3), pp.12-24 (available online)

Class 10: Present your examination essay (presentation of research plan and materials with paper handouts)/ Feedback/ Conclusion/UCL Culture Festival poster (optional)

Prepare a copy of your examination essay plan to share screen with everyone in the class for feedback.

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