Difference between revisions of "Kalym (Russia)"

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In Russia and other post-socialist societies, ''kalym'' is often used also to mean additional, supplementary income from working informally in a way related somehow to one’s primary employment.  However it has the additional nuance of unforeseen opportunity.  Blue-collar workers use ''kalym'' in particular to refer to any moonlighting job using skills, connections or even materials related to formal work. For example, using a formal-job works-truck to informally deliver building materials (off or on the clock!) is ''kalym''.  The worker may get more money per hour from this ''kalym'' than from formal work. He may even have an informal ‘employment’ (i.e. unregistered and undocumented as a legal entity) on the basis of his access to a truck in his formal job. This case of ''kalym'' stresses the semi-perpetuating informal work environment dominated by a social network of current and former work-mates (<ref>Morris, J. 2013. ‘Moonlighting strangers met on the way: the nexus of informality and Blue-collar sociality in Russia’, in Morris, J., and Polese, A., (eds.), ''The Informal Post-socialist Economy: Embedded Practices and Livelihoods'', Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 51-66. </ref>). The extent of a horizontal social network is important for exploiting ''kalym'' opportunities at the same time as skills and resources (access to a truck) that enable vertical social networking (soliciting work from potential clients). In this case ''kalym'' comes to resemble informal versions of trades well known for their formal self-employment basis in the rest of the Global North: plumbers, carpenters, car repair, etc.  The difference here is that perhaps the majority of trades work in Russia is in the shadow economy and may well be accompanied by a less well-paid formal job, in a factory, for example. By contrast, ''kalym'' is used by Russian white-collar workers in a similar sense to ‘moonlighting’ in the West. In addition, semi- or unskilled workers are more likely to use the term for any opportunities for extra earning – typically in construction work, or manual handling odd-jobs for cash without any necessary long-term perspectives.  

In Russia and other post-socialist societies, ''kalym'' is often used also to mean additional, supplementary income from working informally in a way related somehow to one’s primary employment.  However it has the additional nuance of unforeseen opportunity.  Blue-collar workers use ''kalym'' in particular to refer to any moonlighting job using skills, connections or even materials related to formal work. For example, using a formal-job works-truck to informally deliver building materials (off or on the clock!) is ''kalym''.  The worker may get more money per hour from this ''kalym'' than from formal work. He may even have an informal ‘employment’ (i.e. unregistered and undocumented as a legal entity) on the basis of his access to a truck in his formal job. This case of ''kalym'' stresses the semi-perpetuating informal work environment dominated by a social network of current and former work-mates (<ref>Morris, J. 2013. ‘Moonlighting strangers met on the way: the nexus of informality and Blue-collar sociality in Russia’, in Morris, J., and Polese, A., (eds.), ''The Informal Post-socialist Economy: Embedded Practices and Livelihoods'', Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 51-66. </ref>). The extent of a horizontal social network is important for exploiting ''kalym'' opportunities at the same time as skills and resources (access to a truck) that enable vertical social networking (soliciting work from potential clients). In this case ''kalym'' comes to resemble informal versions of trades well known for their formal self-employment basis in the rest of the Global North: plumbers, carpenters, car repair, etc.  The difference here is that perhaps the majority of trades work in Russia is in the shadow economy and may well be accompanied by a less well-paid formal job, in a factory, for example. By contrast, ''kalym'' is used by Russian white-collar workers in a similar sense to ‘moonlighting’ in the West. In addition, semi- or unskilled workers are more likely to use the term for any opportunities for extra earning – typically in construction work, or manual handling odd-jobs for cash without any necessary long-term perspectives.