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CALL FOR PAPERS – 12th InASEA conference : THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INFORMALITY: VERNACULAR GOVERNANCE, CLIENTELISM, AND GREY ECONOMIES IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE

12th InASEA conference

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INFORMALITY:
VERNACULAR GOVERNANCE,
CLIENTELISM, AND GREY ECONOMIES IN
SOUTHEAST EUROPE

8-11 OCTOBER 2026

CALL FOR PAPERS

Organisers:
The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology,
Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics,
“Sts. Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje

ABOUT THE TOPIC

Across Southeast Europe, public life is deeply shaped by practices that exist beyond the boundaries of formal institutions and legal definitions: informal arrangements, clientelist networks, personalized governance, and grey economic activities. Rather than viewing these phenomena as mere dysfunctions or residues of underdevelopment, this conference seeks to explore them as deeply embedded, historically situated, and socially meaningful practices.

This event brings together scholars, researchers, and practitioners to reflect on the social life of informality — how people navigate institutions, forge relationships, and secure livelihoods through alternative and often vernacular forms of organization. Informality, clientelism, and the grey economy are not simply exceptions to the rule of law; they are part of the rule’s lived reality, coexisting with formal systems in ways that are often adaptive, ambivalent, and ethically complex.

Too often, dominant policy discourses impose singular and moralizing definitions of these practices, overlooking the local logics, cultural histories, and everyday negotiations through which they emerge. This conference invites us to move beyond normative frameworks and toward a more anthropological and ethnographically grounded understanding — one that centers lived experience, historical depth, and moral reasoning.

By tracing how governance actually functions in everyday life — in homes, markets, offices, neighborhoods, and kinship networks — we can better understand the vernacular forms of statehood, legitimacy, and cooperation that sustain social life in times of uncertainty and
institutional fragility.

CALL FOR PAPERS

We welcome contributions that explore the ambiguous and situated nature of informality, clientelism, and grey economies, especially through qualitative, ethnographic, and historically informed approaches. We are interested in how these practices are shaped by and shape social
relations, moral economies, and historical memory, as well as how they relate to broader processes of transition, globalization, and digital transformation.

Submissions may focus on any part of Southeast Europe, and comparative or transregional perspectives are encouraged.

Key Themes (suggested, but not limited to):

Ethnographies of informality: how people solve problems, navigate bureaucracy, and build networks in everyday life.
Clientelist arrangements: political loyalty, social obligation, and personalized systems of exchange.

Grey economic activity: informal labor, hybrid livelihoods, and everyday entrepreneurship in precarious contexts.

Moral economies and vernacular ethics: how people define fairness, obligation, and legitimacy in informal transactions.

Historical legacies: how socialist, imperial, or post-conflict histories continue to shape informal governance.

Discretion, negotiation, and workaround cultures in public administration and social services.

Kinship, friendship, and local solidarities as foundations of informal systems.

Digital transformations of informality: new platforms, apps, and networks for informal exchange.

Urban space and informality: housing, infrastructure, and informal urban planning.
Everyday engagements with the state: how the state is interpreted, invoked, or circumvented.

Gendered and generational dimensions of informal life and economic survival.

Beyond binaries: challenging the dichotomy between formal and informal, legal and illegal, modern and traditional.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words, clearly outlining the research question, approach, and key insights.
Please include a short biographical note (max 150 words) for each author.

We welcome submissions from early-career scholars, doctoral researchers, and practitioner-researchers, alongside established academics.

Contributions may be theoretical, empirical, or methodological.
For panel submission: title of the panel, names of panellists (no more than four panellists per
panel), abstracts of each panellist (no more than 300 words), and their short biographies (no
more than 100 words).

Submission Deadline: 27 February 2026
Notification of Acceptance: 27 April 2026

CONFERENCE FORMAT

The conference will feature keynote lectures, thematic panels, and roundtable discussions
designed to foster open, interdisciplinary exchange. Select contributions may be invited for
inclusion in a special journal issue or an edited volume on informality, clientelism, and
everyday governance in Southeast Europe.

CONTACT INFORMATION

For abstract submissions and inquiries, please contact: inasea2000@gmail.com
For updates and full conference details: Dushica Brachikj and Aleksandar Meshkov
inasea2000@gmail.com

REVIEWING COMMITTEE

Elena Barbulescu, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Nebi Bardhoshi, Tiranë, Albania
Alenka Bartulović, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Danijela Birt Katić, Zadar, Croatia
Ioannis Manos, Thessaloniki, Greece
Robert Pichler, Viena, Austria
Ljupcho S. Risteski, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Ljupcho S. Risteski, President of the Committee, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Mirjana Mirchevska, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Ilina Jakimovska, Head of IEA, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Davorin Trpeski, Dean of FNSM, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Ana Ashtalkovska Gajtanoska, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Ines Crvenkovska Risteska, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Viktor Trajanovski, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

CONFERENCE SECRETARIES
Dushica Brachikj, IEA, FNSM, UKIM, Republic of North Macedonia
Aleksandar Meshkov, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

CONFERENCE FEE

InASEA members who have paid their membership dues for the past two years will be asked to pay an on-site only Conference fee of 40 EUR.

Non-InASEA members and members who have not paid their dues will be asked to pay an on-site Conference fee of:

80 EUR for participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece,
Kosova, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey; 120 EUR for participants from all other countries.

For all participants who have paid the Conference fee, the conference organizers will cover full accommodation and meals during the Conference.

For conference participants who do not require accommodation and meals, the conference
fee is 40 EUR.

ACCOMMODATION SUPPORT AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Co-financing of accommodation and travel costs will be available for young scholars (Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers up to the age of 35) who are not employed and do not have access to other funding sources (e.g., project funds). Eligible applicants may receive
financial support up to a maximum of 150 EUR.

The final decision will be made by the Organizing Committee.

Sciences Po – CERI: séminaire “Variations autoritaires” – prochaine séance le 24 octobre 2024

Le Labsem (séminaire général du laboratoire) du CERI fait peau neuve et reprend à partir d’octobre 2024 pour une série de huit séances axées sur le thème des « variations autoritaires ».

La prochaine séance aura lieu, sur inscription (ici), le 24 octobre 2024, entre 12.30 – 14.30:

Nadège Ragaru, Sciences Po-CERI/CNRS: « Variations autour d’un adagietto de Gustav Mahler : individus, institutions et régimes ».
Adagietto. Sehr langsam, Symphonie n.° 5, Gustav Mahler, 1901-1902.

Sur Zoom et en présentiel. L’adresse Zoom est fournie sur inscription

“C’est en accompagnant cette partition emblématique du compositeur Gustav Mahler en trois lieux, trois moments et trois mondes sociaux que l’on interrogera ici certaines des formes prises par les variations autoritaires – dans un champ professionnel (celui de la musique classique), dans les rapports de conjugalité et dans un régime politique où la répression a été associée (entre autres) à l’expérience de l’exil. À chaque étape, il s’agira de suggérer des approches possibles des configurations autoritaires, de leurs acteurs, de leurs institutions et de leurs mécanismes sociaux. Il sera donc question de sources (sonores, visuelles ou scripturaires), de démarches (microsociales ou multiscalaires ; individualisantes ou holistiques ; comparatives ou circulatoires ; sensibles au genre), de champs disciplinaires (science politique, histoire) et de la contribution des savoirs de l’art et de la fiction aux sciences sociales.”

Discussion collective.

Continuer la lecture de Sciences Po – CERI: séminaire “Variations autoritaires” – prochaine séance le 24 octobre 2024

Olivier Delouis, Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert (Dir.), La vie quotidienne des moines en Orient et en Occident (IVe-Xe siècle) Volume II, Questions transversales, Institut français d’archéologie orientale, École française d’Athènes, 2019 (492 P. , 78€)

Le programme collectif sur la Vie quotidienne des moines en Orient et en Occident (IVe-Xe siècle) trouve avec le présent ouvrage son achèvement. Un premier volume avait exposé, par régions géographiques, la variété des sources permettant d’étudier le quotidien des moines des premiers siècles. Dans un second colloque tenu à Paris en 2011, une perspective comparatiste fut appliquée à six thèmes transversaux : le paysage monastique, le corps du moine, la prière, les sociologies monastiques, l’économie productive, la fixation et la diffusion de la norme. Vingt-deux articles interrogent ici ces réalités communes aux moines égyptiens, nubiens, syro-palestiniens, byzantins, nord-africains, wisigothiques, italiens, francs et germaniques, anglo-saxons ou irlandais.
Si la démarche a su varier les angles d’approche, l’ambition d’embrasser toutes les formes de la vie monastique a été maintenue. Elle a permis de saisir le monachisme comme un phénomène non pas unique, mais façonné au contact d’environnements différents. Aussi le quotidien des moines, aux traits souvent répétitifs et peu saillants, illustre-t-il, comme en miroir, l’histoire des sociétés où ils se sont inscrits dans le temps.

Continuer la lecture de Olivier Delouis, Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert (Dir.), La vie quotidienne des moines en Orient et en Occident (IVe-Xe siècle) Volume II, Questions transversales, Institut français d’archéologie orientale, École française d’Athènes, 2019 (492 P. , 78€)

Magali Boumaza (dir.), Faire Mémoire. Regard croisé sur les mobilisations mémorielles (France, Allemagne, Ukraine, Turquie, Égypte), L’Harmattan, 2019 (254p., 26€)

Dans une perspective pluridisciplinaire, cet ouvrage réunit des historiens, des sociologues et des politistes qui proposent une lecture croisée de mobilisations mémorielles insistant sur la mémorialisation de lieux, revenant sur la fabrique de mémoires collectives partisane, associative et syndicale .
Les auteurs croisent les outils de la sociologie de la mémoire et de celle des mobilisations et s’intéresse à la transmission au sein des organisations militantes.

Magali Boumaza est docteure de l’IEP de Strasbourg (2002) et enseignante-chercheuse en science politique à l’Université Galatasaray d’Istanbul depuis 2007.

Ont contribué à cet ouvrage : Magali BOUMAZA, Corinne CHEVALLIER, Etienne COPEAUX, Paul CORMIER, Isil ERDINC, Alexandra GOUJON, Mayada MADBOULY, Eylem ÖZKAYA, Régis SCHLAGDENHAUFFEN.