![]() It reveals that citizens’ adoption of this informality helps them salvage part of their frozen assets, challenge state regulations of the market and national currency as a larger volume of business activity now occurs outside formal channels, and, quite significantly, contest the political-economic model undergirding Lebanon’s sectarian system. Dollar bank deposits, coupled with monetary dislocations that create multiple currency exchange rates on the market, spawn a set of informal economic practices. ![]() It finds that central bank restrictions on citizens’ access to their U.S. While it faults elites for nurturing an unsustainable political-economic model that builds on state debt, harms the balance of payments, and structures the economy around unproductive sectors that benefit a privileged few, it gages the impact of these institutional shifts on citizens’ embracement of informality. This chapter contributes to an understanding of the role of Lebanese political elites in molding state institutions and distorting Lebanon’s public finances, which severely skew Lebanese citizens’ attitude toward informal economic practices as Lebanon plunged into a sovereign debt crisis in 2020. These are the spheres of public life where it is possible to identify a larger gap between the wishes of a state and the ways citizens actually act as they informally avoid or bypass its rules. Second, we use this claim to argue that a better understanding of informality can help identify governance areas where interventions are more urgent. First, we explore the use of informality (informal practices) to suggest that apparently insignificant actions that are repeated routinely and without much thought, are a way to contribute to the construction of the political and that everyday governance should receive more attention. ![]() Taking advantage of two case studies, Romanian migrants to Spain and ethnic entrepreneurs in Croatia, we observe how governance is constructed and provide two novel interpretative frameworks. The starting point of this article is that this lack of support may result from enhanced labour mobility (and migration) across Europe, and may enhance the creation and persistence of informal practices. However, there are cases where lack of compliance stems from the fact that society members do not feel protected by formal structures, and they rely on informal ones to replace, supplement, or even compete with state institutions. When this does not occur, it is generally accepted that the citizens are deviating from state goals. The state grants protection, education, medical care, and its citizens contribute labour, compliance, and taxes. Post-Weberian definitions see the state–individual relationship as a “do ut des” one. Furthermore, the introduction includes an overview of the book’s chapters and summaries of their contents, familiarizing the reader with the structure and the philosophy of writing that characterize this book. By presenting the field methods applied and describing the type of data collected and the range of questions studied, the author explains her contribution to current debates in anthropology and post-Soviet studies. She also reviews the relevant literature related to trade, traders and markets in the post-Soviet space and introduces some of the major works that have shaped the debates on the post-Soviet economy. She then turns from a global to a post-Soviet perspective and presents three marketplaces-Yabaolu Market (Ябaoлy 雅宝路) in Beijing Lilo Bazroba (lilos bazroba) on the outskirts of Tbilisi and the Chinese Hualing Sea Plaza Market (Hualingi Tbilisis Zġvis Plaza, hualingi Tbilisis zRvis plaza) in a new Chinese-built quarter in Tbilisi-as representative examples for different but interlinked types of bazaars and bazaar trade. The author introduces her research partners, research sites, methods, sources and motivations and gives an overview of anthropological research and theory on markets, marketplaces, long-distance trade and the role of such studies for the understanding of human society. In the introduction, the author outlines the topic of long-distance trade, bazaars and traders in Eurasia and discusses theoretical concepts such as “informality” and “globalization from below”, the starting point for this study’s theoretical framework.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |