Networks in the Russian Market Economy

Using maternity capital: Citizen distrust of Russian family policy

“…accounting and legal competence) to access and optimize available social benefits and programs. As we know from previous studies, middle-class social networks also allow a person to approach the gatekeepers of social programs and negotiate with them formally or informally (Ledeneva, 1998; Lonkila, 2011). People from the low-resource groups, who reside outside the central cities, experience significant limitations in access to social benefits, as they do not have sufficient skills or capabilities to be the subject of critical action.…”

Introduction

“…The book is the outcome of over three hundred in-depth interviews conducted over a three-year period (from 2013 through 2015) in Rus sia and around the world by a team of Rus sian, US, French, and Dutch scholars. 3 While the prac ti tion ers we have studied are regularly covered by popu lar media (Bowles 2017;Shane, Sanger, and Perlroth 2017), discussed in business publications, and reported upon in foreign-policy think tanks, they have as a whole received scant scholarly attention, and almost none in academic Anglophone lit er a ture (Bardham and Kroll 2006;Borjas and Doran 2012;Feakins 2009;Freinkman, Gonchar, and Kuznetsov 2013;Ganguli 2015;Lonkila 2011). The Rus sian it sphere is one of successful private enterprises, greatly varying in size.…”

Informal Institutions in Azerbaijan: Exploring the Intricacies ofTapsh

“…The leading expert on blat, Alena Ledeneva (2013, p. 7) defines blat as 'the use of personal networks for obtaining goods and services in short supply and for circumventing formal procedures'. Pioneered by Ledeneva (1998), the research on blat now consists of numerous studies (Michailova & Worm 2003;Lonkila 2010), which present blat as a complex and highly adaptive informal practice flourishing not only across the vast expanse of Russian Federation, but also in Ukraine (Onoshechneko & Williams 2013), Kazakhstan (Oka 2013), Uzbekistan (Rasanayagam 2011) and the South Caucasus (Aliyev 2013).…”