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The Global Encyclopedia of Informality

Join the FRINGE Centre for this launch, which marks the first publication in the FRINGE Series.

Location: 
Common Ground
Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)
South Wing, Wilkins Building
University College London, Gower Street
WC1E 6BT

Date: Thursday 22 March 2018
Time: 16:00-20:00pm
Wine reception from 17:30pm

Register to attend 

Join the FRINGE Centre for this launch, which marks the first publication in the FRINGE Series.

Alena Ledeneva invites you on a voyage of discovery, to explore society’s open secrets, unwritten rules and know-how practices. Broadly defined as ‘ways of getting things done’, these invisible yet powerful informal practices tend to escape articulation in official discourse. They include emotion-driven exchanges of gifts or favours and tributes for services, interest-driven know-how (from informal welfare to informal employment and entrepreneurship), identity-driven practices of solidarity, and power-driven forms of co-optation and control.


The paradox, or not, of the invisibility of these informal practices is their ubiquity. 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 in this volume are samples of the truly global and ever-growing collection, made possible by a remarkable collaboration of over 200 scholars across disciplines and area studies. 



Read more about the Encyclopaedia here.

Global Encyclopedia of Informality Book Cover Page