CfP: “Flavours of Informality: An Exploration of the Grey Areas Between the Legal–Illegal and Moral–Immoral Boundaries”.

Editors: Abel Polese, Ignacio Fredejas Garcia, Asankojo Isaev, Joseph P. Helou

Publisher: Palgrave – international series in political economy (edited by Tim Shaw)

Flavours of Informality seeks empirical case studies from diverse regions to explore the complex, often blurred boundaries between legality and illegality and their intersection with varying perceptions of morality.

The volume interrogates the relationship between states and citizens, particularly in contexts where state-imposed moral frameworks diverge from those held by individuals. This divergence can lead to resistance, adaptation, or the creation of alternative cultural identities, especially during periods of political or economic instability.

Our planned contribution may be located between two main approaches. First, we provide a nuanced account of informality as a form of resistance. Second, we expand the analytical lens beyond traditional state-focused or region-focused studies by adopting a multi-scalar approach. This includes actors and interactions on the individual, local, national, international, and transnational levels.

By emphasising these dimensions, we welcome works that examine how informal practices are shaped by, and respond to, labour mobility regimes, in addition to works that examine how informal practices are embedded in the everyday lives of workers, entrepreneurs, unions, and bureaucrats. Rather than focusing on isolated acts of non-compliance, the book draws on James Scott’s concept of “infrapolitics” (2012) that shows the cumulative effect of countless small, often unnoticed acts that collectively shape political and cultural identities. Informality is thus framed not as marginal or exceptional, but as a central and persistent feature of social life, with significant implications for how power and governance are enacted.

Contributions from the fields of political science, economics, business, management, planning and urban studies, sociology, anthropology and beyond are welcomed. We plan to highlight, through significant and embedded case studies, the relevance of everyday informal practices, being of an economic or monetary nature (e.g., flows of remittances, shadow economies, smuggling practices, ROSCA, and cross-border trade) to social and political forms (e.g., identity and social status negotiation, resistance, and non-compliance), to political, economic, and social orders. Our geographical scope is deliberately broad to advance area studies out of their disciplinary silos, while attempting to identify new comparisons across regions.

Here, “Flavours” refer to the diverse, context-specific forms that informality takes, each shaped by unique socio-political and spatial conditions. These forms reference a table that was compiled some years agohttp://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/idps/article/view/19900/16956.

Legal perception
Social perception
Pluses
Minuses
Informal governance and ''sistema''
Reciprocity may be treated as nepotism or corruption but there is no legal framework to deal with the situation where everyone has something to hide
Ranges from “necessary evil” to get things done to “evidence of advanced degradation of a country and its society”
Avoids collapse. A last minute or ad-personam solution is usually found
The perspective of no development. Effectiveness depends on people. When they change, everything starts from zero again
Shadow economy and informal labour
Tax non-compliance and failure to register a company is illegal
Hard to find someone openly condemning it. It is usually "us" against the (bad) state and usually justified or understandable as the attitude by those not directly affected by it
Allows a large amount of people to survive. Can be used as a starting point to think of tax and other reforms
Takes away revenues from state budget; puts the country in a negative light with regards to the business environment; represents an additional cost to secure compliance
Informal payments and corruption
Some transactions are formally illegal and punishable. Framework to deal with non-monetary transactions is largely absent
Understanding, or even empathy, is visible in some categories and cases (doctors, teachers) more than in others (police, tax inspectors). Overall, they contribute to the perception of the country as under-developed
Allows many people to “get things done” in situations where huddles and limitations (to their basic rights as citizens) are present
Makes the system unpredictable and difficult to understand (especially to external actors and newcomers); makes it easier to abuse authority and power
Informality and policy-making
There is virtually no debate or awareness
Little reflection. It is treated as an exception to a usually widely accepted rule or behaviour
People who are unable to meet state requirements or act as they are supposed to can still "live with the rule" and need not take action, protest or challenge the state
Generates a gap between policy-makers (setting impossible objectives) and the people (especially those who cannot live with these objectives)

But again, authors are welcome to challenge, criticize, and/or expand these forms by way of their own empirical evidence.

The volume is also intended to offer continuity and evolution from previous published volumes:
Governance Beyond the Law The Immoral, The Illegal, The Criminalhttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-05039-9
Informality, Labour Mobility and Precariousness Supplementing the State for the Invisible and the Vulnerablehttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-82499-0
The Informal Economy in Global Perspective Varieties of Governancehttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-40931-3

Continuity means that we hope to expand and integrate topics and approaches that have been proposed in the above volumes. Evolution implies that critical views on existing contributions, including the whole approach of the book, are welcome as long as they help identifying new directions in the study of informality.

We welcome contributions grounded in empirical research to reflect on how everyday (im)mobilities generate, transform, and reshape informal practices in contexts marked by citizen–state mismatches as well as divergent moralities between states and citizens. What a state proposes as legal, moral and in general good behaviour. What citizens (or non-citizens, such as stateless people) consider moral in spite of state instructions. What is at the basis of this possible mismatch and why. This might involve delving into illegal, criminal or other forms of subversive behaviour that undermine the foundations of a state, but do not necessarily jeopardise societal cohesion.

If you wish to contribute to this work, please send a 300-word abstract and a short biographical statement in a word file to:

Abel.polese@dcu.iemailto:Abel.polese@dcu.ie
fradejasignacio@uniovi.esmailto:fradejasignacio@uniovi.es
asankojo.isaev2@mail.dcu.iemailto:asankojo.isaev2@mail.dcu.ie
Joseph.helou01@lau.edu.lbmailto:Joseph.helou01@lau.edu.lb

Please submit your abstract by 30 November 2025 with “flavours of informality + your name” in the subject line of the email.

Later submissions might be considered, depending on how many submissions we have received already.

Apologies for cross-posting

CfP: “Flavours of Informality: An Exploration of the Grey Areas Between the Legal–Illegal and Moral–Immoral Boundaries”.

Editors: Abel Polese, Ignacio Fredejas Garcia, Asankojo Isaev, Joseph P. Helou

Publisher: Palgrave – international series in political economy (edited by Tim Shaw)

Flavours of Informality seeks empirical case studies from diverse regions to explore the complex, often blurred boundaries between legality and illegality and their intersection with varying perceptions of morality.

The volume interrogates the relationship between states and citizens, particularly in contexts where state-imposed moral frameworks diverge from those held by individuals. This divergence can lead to resistance, adaptation, or the creation of alternative cultural identities, especially during periods of political or economic instability.

Our planned contribution may be located between two main approaches. First, we provide a nuanced account of informality as a form of resistance. Second, we expand the analytical lens beyond traditional state-focused or region-focused studies by adopting a multi-scalar approach. This includes actors and interactions on the individual, local, national, international, and transnational levels.

By emphasising these dimensions, we welcome works that examine how informal practices are shaped by, and respond to, labour mobility regimes, in addition to works that examine how informal practices are embedded in the everyday lives of workers, entrepreneurs, unions, and bureaucrats. Rather than focusing on isolated acts of non-compliance, the book draws on James Scott’s concept of “infrapolitics” (2012) that shows the cumulative effect of countless small, often unnoticed acts that collectively shape political and cultural identities. Informality is thus framed not as marginal or exceptional, but as a central and persistent feature of social life, with significant implications for how power and governance are enacted.

Contributions from the fields of political science, economics, business, management, planning and urban studies, sociology, anthropology and beyond are welcomed. We plan to highlight, through significant and embedded case studies, the relevance of everyday informal practices, being of an economic or monetary nature (e.g., flows of remittances, shadow economies, smuggling practices, ROSCA, and cross-border trade) to social and political forms (e.g., identity and social status negotiation, resistance, and non-compliance), to political, economic, and social orders. Our geographical scope is deliberately broad to advance area studies out of their disciplinary silos, while attempting to identify new comparisons across regions.

Here, “Flavours” refer to the diverse, context-specific forms that informality takes, each shaped by unique socio-political and spatial conditions. These forms reference a table that was compiled some years agohttp://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/idps/article/view/19900/16956.

Legal perception
Social perception
Pluses
Minuses
Informal governance and ''sistema''
Reciprocity may be treated as nepotism or corruption but there is no legal framework to deal with the situation where everyone has something to hide
Ranges from “necessary evil” to get things done to “evidence of advanced degradation of a country and its society”
Avoids collapse. A last minute or ad-personam solution is usually found
The perspective of no development. Effectiveness depends on people. When they change, everything starts from zero again
Shadow economy and informal labour
Tax non-compliance and failure to register a company is illegal
Hard to find someone openly condemning it. It is usually "us" against the (bad) state and usually justified or understandable as the attitude by those not directly affected by it
Allows a large amount of people to survive. Can be used as a starting point to think of tax and other reforms
Takes away revenues from state budget; puts the country in a negative light with regards to the business environment; represents an additional cost to secure compliance
Informal payments and corruption
Some transactions are formally illegal and punishable. Framework to deal with non-monetary transactions is largely absent
Understanding, or even empathy, is visible in some categories and cases (doctors, teachers) more than in others (police, tax inspectors). Overall, they contribute to the perception of the country as under-developed
Allows many people to “get things done” in situations where huddles and limitations (to their basic rights as citizens) are present
Makes the system unpredictable and difficult to understand (especially to external actors and newcomers); makes it easier to abuse authority and power
Informality and policy-making
There is virtually no debate or awareness
Little reflection. It is treated as an exception to a usually widely accepted rule or behaviour
People who are unable to meet state requirements or act as they are supposed to can still "live with the rule" and need not take action, protest or challenge the state
Generates a gap between policy-makers (setting impossible objectives) and the people (especially those who cannot live with these objectives)

But again, authors are welcome to challenge, criticize, and/or expand these forms by way of their own empirical evidence.

The volume is also intended to offer continuity and evolution from previous published volumes:
Governance Beyond the Law The Immoral, The Illegal, The Criminalhttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-05039-9
Informality, Labour Mobility and Precariousness Supplementing the State for the Invisible and the Vulnerablehttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-82499-0
The Informal Economy in Global Perspective Varieties of Governancehttps://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-40931-3

Continuity means that we hope to expand and integrate topics and approaches that have been proposed in the above volumes. Evolution implies that critical views on existing contributions, including the whole approach of the book, are welcome as long as they help identifying new directions in the study of informality.

We welcome contributions grounded in empirical research to reflect on how everyday (im)mobilities generate, transform, and reshape informal practices in contexts marked by citizen–state mismatches as well as divergent moralities between states and citizens. What a state proposes as legal, moral and in general good behaviour. What citizens (or non-citizens, such as stateless people) consider moral in spite of state instructions. What is at the basis of this possible mismatch and why. This might involve delving into illegal, criminal or other forms of subversive behaviour that undermine the foundations of a state, but do not necessarily jeopardise societal cohesion.

If you wish to contribute to this work, please send a 300-word abstract and a short biographical statement in a word file to:

Abel.polese@dcu.iemailto:Abel.polese@dcu.ie
fradejasignacio@uniovi.esmailto:fradejasignacio@uniovi.es
asankojo.isaev2@mail.dcu.iemailto:asankojo.isaev2@mail.dcu.ie
Joseph.helou01@lau.edu.lbmailto:Joseph.helou01@lau.edu.lb

Please submit your abstract by 30 November 2025 with “flavours of informality + your name” in the subject line of the email.

Later submissions might be considered, depending on how many submissions we have received already.