Davies, Thom and Polese, Abel (2015) Informality and survival in Ukraine's nuclear landscape : living with the risks of Chernobyl. Journal of Eurasian Studies, 6 (1). pp. 34-45. doi:10.1016/j.euras.2014.09.002 ISSN 1879-3665.

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Abstract

Recent debates on informal economic activities have partially switched away from a pure monetary logic towards a more complex one, embedded in long term relations and reckoning with non materialistic paradigms. The role of informality in certain aspects of people's lives has however, remained largely unexplored. This article uncovers what happens when the state retires from (providing benefits and social services to) a geographic area and what kind of mechanisms, practices and institutions are created to make up for this. We suggest that, in the face of de facto abandonment by state welfare, and the absence of a private sector alternative, a myriad of transactions and actors can make up for this by replacing these forms of welfare informally. Our case study focuses on the nuclear landscapes around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in north–central Ukraine as we reveal the ways the excluded and abandoned, which we frame as post-nuclear “bare life” (Agamben, 1998), have created a mechanism of social security that is independent from the state and yet complements it. Informal, local and unofficial understandings of nuclear spaces are central to survival in this marginalised and risky environment.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Informal sector (Economics) -- Europe, Eastern, Informal sector (Economics) -- Europe, Central, Informal sector (Economics) -- Former Soviet republics, Post-communism -- Economic aspects
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Eurasian Studies
Publisher:	Elsevier Inc.
ISSN:	1879-3665
Official Date:	January 2015
Dates:	Date Event January 2015 Published 20 November 2014 Available 25 September 2014 Accepted 10 July 2014 Submitted
Volume:	6
Number:	1
Page Range:	pp. 34-45
DOI:	10.1016/j.euras.2014.09.002
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit:	31 December 2015
Date of first compliant Open Access:	31 December 2015

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