Flavours of Informality

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 ago.

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 Criminal

Informality, Labour Mobility and Precariousness Supplementing the State for the Invisible and the Vulnerable

The Informal Economy in Global Perspective Varieties of Governance

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.ie

fradejasignacio@uniovi.es

asankojo.isaev2@mail.dcu.ie

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.  

CfP: What is Informality and What Could Be? Examples From the Latin American Region 

Find the Full CfP on Google Drive 

Deadline for abstracts (1–2 pages + short bio): 30 Sept 2025

Submit to: presilient.dn@gmail.com & miria.gambardella@uab.cat

Full paper deadline: 31 March 2026