Paper short abstract:

Informal purchases of work is often seen as detrimental to Swedish society yet commonly practiced. This paper untangles how buyers make sense of these exchanges in terms of how causes rationalize reasons while they with their own interests in mind simultaneously articulate a view on the common good.

Paper long abstract:

Svart arbete, informal purchases of work, is a widely debated societal phenomenon in Sweden. It is often seen as detrimental to contemporary welfare society, eroding taxpaying morals, fair competition and solidarity with fellow citizens. Acknowledged as wrong, it is in many instances also an acceptable and commonplace exchange practice. These purchases thus illustrate inherent tensions in the contemporary society.

Social phenomena that are taken for granted are intriguing (cf. Herzfeld 2005) and even more so if they are illegal, yet made licit. In these informants view, cheapness and simplicity were at the forefront of an individual economic reasoning. Comments such as 'it is such a small amount' or 'everybody else buys svart' pointed in other directions, to a negligible causality of these actions impact on society. A third set of explanations such as 'it is a kind of tax refund' justified an (unbalanced) economic relation with the state. Finally, expressions such as 'it's normal', 'it has always existed', and 'society would not function without it' entailed habitual and historical reasoning.

This paper untangles how purchasers' make sense of these exchanges in terms of how causes rationalize reasons (cf. Davidson 1963), but also how they justify their actions as individual actors with their own interests in mind can articulate an opinion on the common good (Boltanski & Thévénot 2006).