Informality as an interpretive filter: translating ubleha in local community development in Bosnia

Karla Koutkova

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2016, vol. 24, issue 3, 223-237

Abstract: The article develops an argument that informality cannot be constructed merely as a detrimental antidote of the “formal.” Through empirical examples built on ethnographic fieldwork among “local” and “international” actors in 2012–2013 Bosnia and Herzegovina, it discusses the role of informality as a communicative vehicle that helps navigate the international prerogatives in community management in a post-conflict environment. Complementary to literature that discusses informality as a qualifier for “networks,” “practices” and “institutions,” I discuss its role as an interpretive filter in the process of policy translation. As the article shows, an important role in this process is taken by the transactors, local staff of the international agency and employees of the internationally supported non-governmental sector, who view formal requirements and procedures as fake and nonsensical (ubleha).

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1080/0965156X.2016.1262227

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