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- Convenor:
-
Abel Polese
(Dublin City University)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Abel Polese
(Dublin City University)
- Discussant:
-
Abel Polese
(Dublin City University)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Theme:
- Sociology & Social Issues
- Location:
- Room 110
- Sessions:
- Thursday 23 June, -
Time zone: Asia/Tashkent
Short Abstract:
Contrasting the initial views of informality as an economic phenomenon, studies have started looking at its social, and societal, significance so to shift attention away from informality perceived, especially at the everyday level, as a mere survival strategy
Long Abstract:
The past years have seen an exponential mushrooming of literature on informality. Contrasting the initial views of informality as an economic phenomenon, studies have started looking at its social, and societal, significance, engage with with social theory and social science debates to expand the scope of informality inquires well beyond its initial framework.
If, on the one hand, this has allowed to somehow mainstream informality research (for instance thanks to the widely acclaimed "Global Encyclopaedia of Informality"), on the other hand it shows an immense void in current theoretical approaches. If informality is so widely present in societies, embedded in people's lives and affecting social, political and economic aspects of the life of a state, why governance, public policy, business development, international cooperation do not take it into account? Is it because state agencies, international organizations and development actors are not interested in informality or because researchers fail to link their findings on informality to current policy debates?
Informality, defined as the aggregate of activities happening beyond the control of a state, can provide useful information for policy making at the local, national and international level. It just needs to be explained and framed in a way that is embedded in current (policy and development) debates.
Footing on these assumptions, this panel proposes to shift attention away from informality perceived, especially at the everyday level, as a mere survival strategy to think in a different direction. When people produce similar, or even the same, patterns of behaviour, informality can acquire political significance and reshape the way policies are implemented in a given context and, in particular:
how informality is used to make up for institutions' limited capacity
what the existence of informal practices can tell about the role of the state
If there is a rule (or a law) but only few people comply, is it because people are "bad" or because the rule does not affect a societal priority? what happens when informal practices de facto replace the state and create a microcosm where societal needs are addressed through solidarity networks how solidarity networks are used to replace state support especially by vulnerable groups
how informality is used for survival purposes by vulnerable groups and what lessons can be taken by a state or international organizations to improve their conditions
how governance, and governance mechanisms, can be improved by looking at policy measures through the lens of informality
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 23 June, 2022, -Giulio Benedetti (Stockholm School of Economics in Riga)
Paper short abstract:
This systematic review explores the relation between ambivalence and the role of migration brokers. In doing so, the empirical experience of migration brokerage is read with the help of the theoretical elaboration of the literature about informality.
Paper long abstract:
This systematic review explores the relation between ambivalence and the role of migration brokers, who connect job-seeking migrants with employers. Despite its key role, migration brokerage is still understudied, as the dichotomous distinction between legality and illegality often tends to relegate brokerage either in human trafficking or in standard HR entrepreneurship. (Lindquist, 2012). Adopting the analytical lens of informality allows instead to disentangle the broker's ambivalence, its capacity of sustaining two positions at the same time. (Ledeneva, 2014) This characteristic, I will argue, is related to the role of the broker in connecting two or more different networks.
This review will include empirical studies about migrant workers published after 2000, and specifically cases of brokerage or forms of mediation in accessing the labour market.
The empirical contribution of this paper is to enhance our tools of detection of informal relations, by proposing a shift of focus toward the intermediaries that make complex networks possible. From a theoretical point of view, this paper contributes to the development of informality as a network-based phenomenon by pointing at its core trait -ambivalence- as instrumental to connecting different networks.
References
Ledeneva, A. V. (2014). Beyond Russia's Economy of Favours: The Role of Ambivalence.
Lindquist, J., Xiang, B., & Yeoh, B. S. (2012). Opening the black box of migration: Brokers, the organization of transnational mobility and the changing political economy in Asia. Pacific Affairs, 85(1), 7-19.
Aleksandr Lutsenko (EHESS)
Paper short abstract:
The paper focuses on informal rules that regulate public expressions of big Russian businessmen about political leaders. These rules are seen as an interpretative device through which different actors act and perceive the economic and political reality.
Paper long abstract:
The relations between the state and big business in Russia are known to be dominated by informal practices. Numerous researches focus on clientelism, corruption, tax evasion, government predation on business and capture of assets of private compagnies. The effectiveness and persistence of these practices is ensured, among other things, by their partly dissimulated character. An official façade of state business relations covers the “way in which things get done in practice”. Self-censorship of Russian elites is a widely recognized phenomenon; however, little is known about the specific mechanisms through which it operates and the political effects it may produce. The paper presents some results of my PhD dissertation that aimed to study how leading Russian businessmen express their attitude towards the head of the state and his entourage during different media appearances. Using video analysis of TV interviews with big Russian businessmen and research interviews with journalists of different TV channels, I brough to light a set of the informal rules (termed “pact” by the informants), enforced by sanctions and prescribing what business magnates may say about the political leaders and their associates. The main point of the presentation is that the “pact” should not be seen as a stable list of instructions applicable in clearly defined conditions, it is better understood as a comprehensive interpretative device through which members of elites (but also journalists, analysts) act and perceive the economic and political reality.
Piotr Majda (UCL)
Paper short abstract:
While some progress has been made in analysing and understanding the central government sistema, little is known about the phenomena in the Russian regions. My research attempts to fill this gap by analysing the size and impact of informal governance networks.
Paper long abstract:
The argument about the true nature and categorization of the Russian political regime dates more than a decade back and ranges from illiberal democracy, elective authoritarianism through hybrid regime to virtual democracy or even dictatorship. One of the most accurate concepts describing the mechanics and workings of the Kremlin was conceptualized as sistema, a network-based system of informal governance. In such a setting formal positions, laws and regulations are selectively enforced or meaningless, as they lie at the discretion of power networks. While some progress has been made in analysing and understanding the central government sistema, which sheds some light on co-optation, camouflage and control, the main mechanisms of informal governance. However, little is known about the phenomena in the Russian regions, which is especially salient in provinces without dominant state-owned and Kremlin-affiliated enterprises, like Sverdlovsk oblast. My research attempts to fill this gap by analysing the size and impact of informal governance using data related to state procurement, local officials and business elites such as contract participants, financial declarations and statements. The novelty of my research lies within the combination of highly intangible phenomena nested in informality studies combined with quantitative data collected in the region. By conducting a social network analysis I plan to demonstrate a set of interconnections between politics and business in the region, to empirically confirm the existence of sistema along with practical ways of its detection.
Malika Toqmadi (UCL)
Paper short abstract:
I propose to study the influence of study-abroad programmes on corruption by looking at the Bolashak international scholarship programme funded since 1993 by the government of Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country suffering from systemic corruption.
Paper long abstract:
I propose to study the influence of study-abroad programmes on corruption by looking at the Bolashak international scholarship programme funded since 1993 by the government of Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country suffering from systemic corruption. The questions that will guide my explorations are: Do study-abroad projects influence corruption levels in systemically corrupt environments? How do professionals that studied abroad adapt to or change corrupt environments? I will use the framework proposed by institutional theory to structure my thinking on: 1) understanding of the link between global education and local corruption; 2) assessing the effectiveness of government investment into study-abroad projects as an anti-corruption policy; and 3) theorising the potential of the change of norms in transforming systemically highly-corrupt environments.