Purpose -This study suggests that informal practices and institutions of post-Soviet countries differ from informality in other post-socialist regions and, therefore, proposes categorizing it as 'post-Soviet informality' -a composite definition that extends beyond the concept of 'informal economy' and encompasses, along with economic activities, social and political spheres.Design/methodology/approach -The arguments of the paper are based on a comprehensive analysis of secondary sources.Findings -This article shows that, owing to the effects of antecedent regime's legacies and the problems of post-communist transition, for the proper analysis of informality in post-Soviet countries it needs to be based on an own concept.Originality/value -This study, in contrast to the existing literature on informality in post-communist spaces, specifically focuses on the informal sphere of post-Soviet countries, suggesting that the informal institutions and practices thriving across the vast post-Soviet space not only differ from the informal spheres elsewhere in the world, but also from informality in other post-communist regions.
This study challenges the well-established in conflict studies presentation of paramilitary organisations as state-manipulated death-squads or self-defence groups, and argues that some of present-day militias extend their functions well beyond the role of shadowy proregime enforcers. Drawing its empirical insights from Ukrainian pro-government Volunteer Battalions and supporting these findings with empirical observations from other parts of the world, this article posits that the rise of powerful militia organisations, acting in parallel to the state, makes it imperative to revisit the theory and typology of paramilitary violence. The key theoretical argument of this study is that "state-parallel" militias differ qualitatively from "state-manipulated" paramilitaries typical of the Cold War period. It is detailed in this article that although "state-parallel" paramilitaries are not a new phenomenon, they have thus far remained critically understudied and under-theorised.
Despite a considerable amount of anthropological research into the phenomena of blood revenge and blood feud, little is known about the role of blood revenge as a cause of violent mobilization in irregular wars. Blood revenge, or the practice of seeking blood retribution for a grave offense committed against an individual or his or her relatives, has been practiced since the dawn of humankind. In recent years, it has functioned as an important apolitical mechanism in encouraging violent mobilization in irregular wars, including against foreigners.Scholars in disciplines as varied as anthropology, sociology, psychology, and criminology have explored the phenomenon of blood revenge in depth. In his seminal work on blood revenge among Yanomamo tribes of the Amazon basin, Napoleon Chagnon stated that " [b]lood revenge is one of the most commonly cited causes of violence and warfare in tribal societies." 1 Some scholars have examined the practice of blood revenge in conflict-ridden societies, including those in Albania, Chechnya, Yemen, and Colombia.2 Overall, however, the literature on political violence and conflict studies has yet to offer a comprehensive, systematic empirical account of how blood revenge manifests itself in in contemporary irregular wars.This study takes a step toward filling this gap by presenting a detailed empirical analysis of the role of blood revenge as a cause of violent mobilization in irregular wars. In contrast to the literature on 2 blood revenge in tribal or premodern warfare and on blood revenge as a form of social violence and social justice, 3 this study argues that blood revenge has much wider application in conflict environments than scholars generally have assumed. We empirically ground this proposition in a contextualized and systematic examination of blood revenge practices during the anti-Russian insurgencies in Chechnya from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.We begin by conceptualizing the term "blood revenge." Drawing insights from the extensive literature on blood revenge in anthropology, ethnography, and sociology, we then examine the theoretical implications of blood revenge for the discipline of conflict studies. This section also analyzes the importance of blood revenge in several major present-day irregular wars, including those in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia. Next, we categorize blood revenge as an apolitical, grievance-driven cause of violent mobilization in irregular wars. These conceptual and theoretical sections are followed by a section on methods and data. The subsequent empirical sections present our case study and report our findings on the practice of blood revenge among Chechens during the First Chechen War and the Second Chechnya War (1999-present day) in Russia's North Caucasus region. Conceptualizing Blood RevengeThe words "revenge," "feud," "vengeance," "retribution," and "retaliation" have many meanings. In contrast, the term "blood revenge" typically refers to a more specific, context-bound form of "revenge": a desire to kill an offender or hi...
The research to date on informal networks of the post-communist South Caucasus has tended to focus either on the informal institutions' role in providing social safety nets for the population or on the networks' economic functions. This article examines the impact of informal kinship networks on participation in organized civil society in the present-day Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In order to explore how kinship institutions affect membership in civil society organizations across the South Caucasus, this research builds on a variety of primary and secondary sources. The findings of this study reveal that kinshipbased networks serve as a significant source of social capital in the South Caucasus: they offer social support to their members and encourage intranetwork bonding, making participation in civil society unattractive. However, the prevalence of kinship networks does not significantly affect popular attitudes towards organized civil society and the reliance on kinship structures is not seen as substitute for membership in formal civil society.
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