The global encyclopaedia of informality. Volume I Towards understanding of social and cultural complexity - Alena Ledeneva

lt;p>Alena Ledeneva invites youon a voyage of discovery, to explore society's open secrets, unwritten rulesand know-how practices. Broadly defined as 'ways of getting things done', theseinvisible yet powerful informal practices tend to escape articulation inofficial discourse. They include emotion-driven exchanges of gifts or favoursand tributes for services, interest-driven know-how (frominformal welfare to informal employment and entrepreneurship), identity-drivenpractices of solidarity, and power-driven forms of co-optation and control. Theparadox, or not, of the invisibility of these informal practices is theirubiquity. Expertly practised by insiders but often hidden from outsiders,informal practices are, as this book shows, deeply rooted all over the world,yet underestimated in policy. Entries from the five continents presented inthis volume are samples of the truly global and ever-growing collection, madepossible by a remarkable collaboration of over 200 scholars across disciplinesand area studies.

By mapping the grey zones,blurred boundaries, types of ambivalence and contexts of complexity, this bookcreates the first Global Map of Informality. The accompanying database issearchable by region, keyword or type of practice, so do explore what works,how, where and why!