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INFORM | Closing the Gap between Formal and Informal Institutions in the Balkans

One of our topics is related to research on Western Balkan's challenges towards EU integration. Here we will present the Horizon 2020 funded INFORM project, focusing on "Closing the Gap between Formal and Informal Institutions in the Balkans".

INFORM aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the interaction between the formal institutions brought about by EU integration processes and the informal institutions prevalent in the Western Balkan countries. Formal institutions and rules, such as legal and political regulations, as well as organizations and mechanisms of their implementation, determine formal constraints. Informal institutions, on the other hand, comprise the unwritten rules within a society and highlight the importance of such aspects of social life as conventions, cultural norms, and networks of affinity. The project is based on the premise that, shaken by radically changing ideological and legal structures over the past century, citizens of the Western Balkan countries continue to rely on informal social networks to ensure their socio-economic and political security. These parallel processes have resulted in the widening of the gap between formal institutions and informal social practices. Consequently, the distance between proclaimed goals and existing practices represents a key challenge to the European integration of Balkan societies. INFORM aims to address this paradox by explicating the key formal and informal “rules of the game” that underpin tactical maneuvering between formal and informal institutions in various spheres and at various levels of social life in the Western Balkan countries. The identification and deciphering of the unwritten rules allows for a comparison to the demands and recommendations laid out in the key EU integration. The meticulous, bottom-up research, based in ethnographic approach, will result in policy recommendations aimed at acknowledging informality as part of social life and closing the gap between formal and informal institutions in Balkan societies.

News

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Events

  • INFORM National workshop in Serbia

    The Centre for Empirical Cultural Studies of South-East Europe will host the second INFORM consultative meeting with representatives of the Ministry of European Integration of the Republic of Serbia ...

  • INFORM FINAL CONFERENCE

    On 8 February 2019, the INFORM project will host the final conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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Organisations

  • Center for Intradisciplinary Social Applied Research

    CISAR is a non-governmental, not-for-profit and non-political organization based in Sarajevo. Its main aim is to conduct and promote intradisciplinary and applied research on socially relevant issues – ...

  • Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research

    The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research is a unique center for folkloristic, ethnological, ethnomusicological and related scientific research in the Republic of Croatia, at which the emphasis...

  • Social Research Kosova

    Social Research Kosova is a media, market and public opinion research company based in Prishtina, Kosova.  Social Research Kosova covers the whole territory of Kosova in all surveys. Social Research...

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Documents

  • WBC-RTI.INFO Newsletters sent in 2018

    WBC-RTI.INFohas prepared several newsletter issues in 2018. Thematic articles were drafted while relevant stakeholders contacted and in some cases also interviewed.

  • INFORM Newsletter - #1

    INFORM is an international three-year research project that studies the interactions between formal and informal institutions in the Western Balkan societies, as well as tracks the influence of these ...

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Projects

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