Conference - Informality in Central and South-East Europe: Linkages between Political and Economic Actors

Conference venue: University of Belgrade –Faculty of Philosophy, Čika Ljubina 18-20, Belgrade, Serbia
Period: October 30-31, 2015
Deadline for submitting abstracts: August 1, 2015

Informality represents an important feature of post-socialist societies. Informal and personal networks that predate from the socialist period areanimportant legacy for development of democratic systems and market economy in former socialist countries. Particularly in the context of weak and blurred institutional and normative framework, individuals tend to rely more on informal institutions and practices. Because of that, patterns of clientelism and question of the ‘culture of informality’ are important for understanding of contemporary trajectories in political and economic subsystems of former socialist societies.

The aim of the conference is to presen tthecurrent knowledge and further developments in the debate on informal relations, structures, practices and norms which are established between political and economic actors on central and/or local levels in the states of Central and South-East Europe. Informal practices such as personal and patron-client relations, clientelism, their roots and impacts on social, political and economic structures and behaviors will be in the focus of the conference. Careful attention to informal practices is critical for understanding the incentives that enable and constrain political behavior. Political actors respond to a mix of formal and informal incentives, and in some instances, informal incentives trump the formal ones’. Scientific exploration of informal structures and institutions is especially demanding task which acquires ‘a new set of research challenges’. Exchange of knowledge and experiences in employing different methods in investigation of informal linkages between political and economic elites will be as well important thematic area of the conference. 

Scientific committee:
Alena Ledeneva, Univeristy College London, United Kingdom
Petr Kopecky, Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, the Netherlands
Peter Rodgers, Sheffield University Management School, United Kingdom
Angelo Salento, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
Davorka Matić -University of Zagreb, Faculty of Philosophy, Croatia
Mladen Lazić, University of Belgrade –Faculty of Philosophy, Serbia
Vladimir Vuletić, University of Belgrade –Faculty of Philosophy, Serbia
Zoran Stojiljković, University of Belgrade –Faculty of Political Sciences, Serbia
Slobodan Cvejić, University of Belgrade –Faculty of Philosophy, Serbia

Within this thematic framework, the followingtopics will be in the focus of the conference:

The organizers invite theoretical and empirical contributions on the topics listed above, or related. Particular attention will be given to empirically based contributions whether comparative or country specific.
Abstracts should be of about 500 words, in English, and must be accompanied by name(s) of author(s), their institutional affiliation, and email(s).
Abstracts must be submitted to conference_informality@secons.net before the 1stof August 2015. Abstracts will be evaluated by members of the scientific committee. Participants will be informed about the acceptance of their contribution no later than September 10th2015.

No participation fee will be charged for this conference, due to the support of Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans.
Detailed conference programme will be distributed before the end of September 2015.
For more information click here.

Nebojsa Pavlovic
e-mail:  conference_informality@secons.net
tel.: +381 11 412 1257