Book review: Limits of a Post-Soviet State: How Informality Replaces, Renegotiates, and Reshapes Governance in Contemporary Ukraine / Abel Polese (original) (raw)
Related papers
Out Of The Margins: Re-Theorizing The Role Of The Informal Economy In Ukraine
The recognition that many inhabitants across the world rely on the informal economy for their livelihood has led to a refutation that this sphere is a leftover from pre-capitalism and the advent of a range of competing theorizations of the informal economy as either reinforcing the disparities produced by the formal economy, a chosen alternative to the formal economy or an involuntary survival practice for those decanted from the formal economy. To evaluate critically these rival theories, a study of the informal sector in four localities in Ukraine is reported. Finding that this is an involuntary survival practice but one that is ubiquitous, rather than confined to the marginalized, and is just as commonly used as the formal sector as a coping practice, the outcome is a call to bring the informal economy out of the margins and more centre-stage in future analyses of East-Central European economies.
Journal of Economy and its Applications, 2012
To evaluate critically the competing explanations for the persistence of the informal economy that variously represent this sphere as a residue, by-product, alternative and/or complement to the formal economy, this paper reports a survey of livelihood practices in 313 Moscow households. The finding is that the majority of households primarily depend on informal work to secure their livelihood and that although each and every theorisation is wholly valid with regard to particular types of informal work and/or specific population groups, no one 23 articulation fully captures the diverse nature and multiple meanings of the informal economy in contemporary Moscow. The paper concludes by calling for informal work to move more centrestage in studies of post-socialist economic transition and for a wider re-evaluation of its multilayered and multifarious relationship to formal work in other contexts.
THE ROLE AND MEANING OF THE INFORMAL ECONOMY IN RUSSIA AND OTHER POST-SOCIALIST STATES
Why does the 'informal economy' persist in post-socialist states which are in the main supposed to be set on a path of modernisation towards some kind of market economy, democratic transparency and the rule of law? The disparity between the stubborn persistence of informality in many post-communist societies and its much lower incidence in Western Europe appears even starker if we use the term in its widest sense to include 'off-the-books' salaries, bribes, cash-in-hand wages, avoidance or evasion of taxes, self-provisioning, barter, and in-kind exchange. How does this broad definition help us understand the kind of societies and political economies that these states have become (and might be stubbornly entrenched as - regardless of changes in political leaders)? Focussing on Russia, but also discussing CEE and FSU countries, and drawing on his ethnographic fieldwork on blue-collar workers, this paper offers a broad discussion of the significance of informality in grasping 'where we are now' after 25 years of post-communist transformation.
Everyday tactics and spaces of power: the role of informal economies in post-Soviet Ukraine
2008
Utilising de Certeau's concepts of daily life and his delineation between strategies and tactics as everyday practices this paper examines the role of informal economies in post-Ukraine. Based on 700 household surveys and seventy-five in-depth interviews, conducted in three Ukrainian cities, the paper argues that individuals/households have developed a wide range of tactics in response to the economic marginalisation the country has endured since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Re-thinking the Nature of the Informal Economy: Some Lessons from Ukraine
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2007
This article provides a critical evaluation of the competing discourses that variously represent the informal economy as a residue or leftover of some pre-capitalist era, a by-product of a new type of emergent formal economy, an alternative mode of work organization or a complement to the formal economy. Drawing upon evidence from a study of 600 households in Ukraine that unravels the heterogeneous forms of work in the informal economy, the finding is that although each and every representation is wholly valid in relation to specific types of informal work, no one articulation fully captures the diverse nature and multiple meanings of the informal economy. Here, in consequence, it is contended that only by using all of them will a finer-grained and more comprehensive understanding of the complex and multifarious character of the informal economy be achieved. To display how this can be achieved, a conceptual framework is then presented that couples together these contrasting representations in order to provide a more multi-layered and nuanced depiction of the informal economy, followed by a discussion of the implications for urban and regional development and policy of recognizing the multiple and diverse types of informal work
Surviving post-socialism: the role of informal economic practices
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 2011
Purpose -This paper represents an editorial for this special issue on "Surviving post-socialism", with a particular geographical focus on countries located in the former Soviet Union (FSU) and in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In total, six articles are included in this special issue, which seeks to contribute to the existing body of literature on surviving post-socialism in general and in particular, across all the papers included, paying particular attention to the role of informal economic relations and practices, as fundamental parts of wider economic relations across the FSU and CEE regions. Whilst the papers included in this special issue demonstrate the richness of empirical data which can be generated, also they demonstrate how authors, located in different academic traditions -sociology, political economy and anthropology -can clearly contribute to debates regarding the role of informal economic relations in a number of theoretical and conceptual ways. Design/methodology/approach -This paper attempts to synthesise the main contributions of the six papers within the special issue and in particular seeks to engage with core questions relating to how the empirical findings in these papers contribute to relevant wider theoretical and conceptual debates. Findings -This paper finds that there is a high degree of linkages between the six papers, in particular relating to the issue of the intermeshing of formal and informal economic spheres. Originality/value -The value of this paper is that it provides an introduction, overview and clear and concise summary of the remaining six papers in this special issue on "Surviving post-socialism", outlining the special issue's core aims and contributions.
Informal economy, informal state: The case of Uzbekistan
In the Soviet Union, the official command structure for economic production and distribution gave rise to, and depended upon, what has been described as a ‘shadow’ economy. In the postsocialist context, the unregulated, often extra-legal activities of production and exchange, encompassing the survival strategies of the poor, the emergence of postsocialist ‘Mafias’, and much entrepreneurial activity, has been described using the concept of the ‘informal economy’. This article argues that what we might think of as informal economic activity in Uzbekistan cannot be understood in relation to a formal economy, but is rather an expression of a more general informalisation of lifeworlds following the end of the Soviet Union. Unlike the situation in the Soviet Union, the informal does not emerge from and exist in relation to formal political and economic structures. The state itself is experienced in personalised terms, as a ‘Mafia’, and the informal is all that there is. If the concept of the informal depends on the existence of the formal, how useful is the term informal economy in a context like Uzbekistan? Where the state no longer provides a formal structure in practice, this is sought in moral ideals of state and community.