Introduction: Informality and power in the South Caucasus

ABSTRACTIntroducing this special issue of Caucasus Survey, this article emphasizes the dual importance of studying informality in the South Caucasus: to reveal processes previously dismissed from the purview of academic enquiry, and to elaborate the informality concept as an innovative prism through which to understand norms and regulations structuring social life and power relations. The special issue addresses two clear gaps in the existing literature: the dearth of research into informality in general, and the specific lack of informality studies that do not take a normatively negative view of their subject. In this introduction, we first give an overview of the current research field in the study of informality. Then we discuss research on post-socialist informality, indicating the absence of the Caucasian cases in this literature. Third, we elaborate further the purpose of this special issue and end by offering brief overviews of the contributions herein.