Smoki Musaraj
Biographic Data
| ID | 106263 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Smoki Musaraj |
| GIVEN NAMES | Smoki |
| FAMILY NAME | Musaraj |
| SIGNATURE | MUSARAJ S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ohio University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8580-5259 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Housing, Speculation, and Social Change in Albania
The housing market has been central to the postcommunist transformations of Albania’s economy and society to a neoliberal model. Yet informal practices remain widespread, fostering speculation and corruption. Building booms, internal migration, and a growing tourism sector have reshaped the capital and other cities, as well as coastal areas, with inequality rising
Housing as asset and payment
Construction booms have dominated Albania's economy and politics since the late 1990s. These booms continued even during times of illiquidity. One of the sources of financing construction in Albania is the practice of klering (in‐kind payments). In this practice, developers pay subcontractors in (future) apartments in exchange for materials and labor. I argue that, in klering transactions, housing serves as an asset and a means of payment. The pr…
The Magic of Pyramid Firms
International media accounts of the spectacular collapse of the pyramid firms in Albania in 1997 centre on the story of Maksude Kadëna, the head of the notorious firm, Sude. These accounts depict Kadëna as a 'gypsy fortune teller who claimed to look into a crystal ball'. In this article, I return to these various accounts of Sude/Kadëna as a way to explore ethnographically the broader set of cosmologies and repertoires of credit and speculation t…
Money at the Margins
Mobile money, e-commerce, cash cards, retail credit cards, and more—as new monetary technologies become increasingly available, the global South has cautiously embraced these mediums as a potential solution to the issue of financial inclusion. How, if at all, do new forms of dematerialized money impact people’s everyday financial lives? In what way do technologies interact with financial repertoires and other socio-cultural institutions? How do t…
Money at the Margins
Mobile money, e-commerce, cash cards, retail credit cards, and more―as new monetary technologies become increasingly available, the global South has cautiously embraced these mediums as a potential solution to the issue of financial inclusion. How, if at all, do new forms of dematerialized money impact people’s everyday financial lives? In what way do technologies interact with financial repertoires and other socio-cultural institutions? How do t…
Money at the Margins
Corruption, Right On
Since 2002, the satirical investigative television show Fiks Fare ("Right On!" or "Exactly") has aired immediately after prime-time news at a leading national broadcasting network in Albania. Through sting operations and cynical satire, the show tells the raw story of everyday experiences of corruption in Albanian society-from daily interactions with low-level public administration officers to the backroom deals of high-level officials. Over the …
Anthropology and Economy Anthropology and Economy . By Stephen Gudeman. New York
Pyramid Firms and Value Transformation in Postsocialist Albania
Avec leur effondrement, les entreprises nommées « firmes pyramidales » ( firma piramidale ) en Albanie ont englouti les économies de centaines de milliers d'investisseurs et ont mené le pays au bord de la guerre civile. Cet article étudie comment et pourquoi les investisseurs se sont engagés dans ces plans financiers frauduleux. Plus précisément, il analyse la façon dont ces entreprises ont mobilisé les réseaux de parenté, ainsi que les versement…
The Quiet Power of Indicators
Using a power-knowledge framework, this volume critically investigates how major global indicators of legal governance are produced, disseminated and used, and to what effect. Original case studies include Freedom House's Freedom in the World indicator, the Global Reporting Initiative's structure for measuring and reporting on corporate social responsibility, the World Justice Project's measurement of the rule of law, the World Bank's Doing Busin…
Tales From Albarado
The Albanian pyramid schemes (1992-97) drew in almost two thirds of the country's population with the promise of sure financial returns. When the schemes collapsed, many thousands in Albania lost their savings, remittances from immigrant relatives, even their recently privatized apartments. How might we understand such widespread involvement in this high-risk economic activity? Moving beyond explanations that stop at "mania" or "ignorance of mark…
Tales From Albarado
The Albanian pyramid schemes (1992-97) drew in almost two thirds of the country's population with the promise of sure financial returns. When the schemes collapsed, many thousands in Albania lost their savings, remittances from immigrant relatives, even their recently privatized apartments. How might we understand such widespread involvement in this high-risk economic activity? Moving beyond explanations that stop at "mania" or "ignorance of mark…
Corruption, Right On
Since 2002, the satirical investigative television show Fiks Fare ("Right On!" or "Exactly") has aired immediately after prime-time news at a leading national broadcasting network in Albania. Through sting operations and cynical satire, the show tells the raw story of everyday experiences of corruption in Albanian society-from daily interactions with low-level public administration officers to the backroom deals of high-level officials. Over the …
The Magic of Pyramid Firms
International media accounts of the spectacular collapse of the pyramid firms in Albania in 1997 centre on the story of Maksude Kadëna, the head of the notorious firm, Sude. These accounts depict Kadëna as a 'gypsy fortune teller who claimed to look into a crystal ball'. In this article, I return to these various accounts of Sude/Kadëna as a way to explore ethnographically the broader set of cosmologies and repertoires of credit and speculation t…
Housing as asset and payment
Construction booms have dominated Albania's economy and politics since the late 1990s. These booms continued even during times of illiquidity. One of the sources of financing construction in Albania is the practice of klering (in‐kind payments). In this practice, developers pay subcontractors in (future) apartments in exchange for materials and labor. I argue that, in klering transactions, housing serves as an asset and a means of payment. The pr…
Pyramid Firms and Value Transformation in Postsocialist Albania
Avec leur effondrement, les entreprises nommées « firmes pyramidales » ( firma piramidale ) en Albanie ont englouti les économies de centaines de milliers d'investisseurs et ont mené le pays au bord de la guerre civile. Cet article étudie comment et pourquoi les investisseurs se sont engagés dans ces plans financiers frauduleux. Plus précisément, il analyse la façon dont ces entreprises ont mobilisé les réseaux de parenté, ainsi que les versement…
Tales From Albarado
The Albanian pyramid schemes (1992-97) drew in almost two thirds of the country's population with the promise of sure financial returns. When the schemes collapsed, many thousands in Albania lost their savings, remittances from immigrant relatives, even their recently privatized apartments. How might we understand such widespread involvement in this high-risk economic activity? Moving beyond explanations that stop at "mania" or "ignorance of mark…
The Quiet Power of Indicators
Using a power-knowledge framework, this volume critically investigates how major global indicators of legal governance are produced, disseminated and used, and to what effect. Original case studies include Freedom House's Freedom in the World indicator, the Global Reporting Initiative's structure for measuring and reporting on corporate social responsibility, the World Justice Project's measurement of the rule of law, the World Bank's Doing Busin…
Anthropology and Economy Anthropology and Economy . By Stephen Gudeman. New York
Pyramid Firms and Value Transformation in Postsocialist Albania
Avec leur effondrement, les entreprises nommées « firmes pyramidales » ( firma piramidale ) en Albanie ont englouti les économies de centaines de milliers d'investisseurs et ont mené le pays au bord de la guerre civile. Cet article étudie comment et pourquoi les investisseurs se sont engagés dans ces plans financiers frauduleux. Plus précisément, il analyse la façon dont ces entreprises ont mobilisé les réseaux de parenté, ainsi que les versement…
Money at the Margins
Mobile money, e-commerce, cash cards, retail credit cards, and more—as new monetary technologies become increasingly available, the global South has cautiously embraced these mediums as a potential solution to the issue of financial inclusion. How, if at all, do new forms of dematerialized money impact people’s everyday financial lives? In what way do technologies interact with financial repertoires and other socio-cultural institutions? How do t…
Money at the Margins
Mobile money, e-commerce, cash cards, retail credit cards, and more―as new monetary technologies become increasingly available, the global South has cautiously embraced these mediums as a potential solution to the issue of financial inclusion. How, if at all, do new forms of dematerialized money impact people’s everyday financial lives? In what way do technologies interact with financial repertoires and other socio-cultural institutions? How do t…
Money at the Margins
Corruption, Right On
Since 2002, the satirical investigative television show Fiks Fare ("Right On!" or "Exactly") has aired immediately after prime-time news at a leading national broadcasting network in Albania. Through sting operations and cynical satire, the show tells the raw story of everyday experiences of corruption in Albanian society-from daily interactions with low-level public administration officers to the backroom deals of high-level officials. Over the …
The Magic of Pyramid Firms
International media accounts of the spectacular collapse of the pyramid firms in Albania in 1997 centre on the story of Maksude Kadëna, the head of the notorious firm, Sude. These accounts depict Kadëna as a 'gypsy fortune teller who claimed to look into a crystal ball'. In this article, I return to these various accounts of Sude/Kadëna as a way to explore ethnographically the broader set of cosmologies and repertoires of credit and speculation t…
Housing as asset and payment
Construction booms have dominated Albania's economy and politics since the late 1990s. These booms continued even during times of illiquidity. One of the sources of financing construction in Albania is the practice of klering (in‐kind payments). In this practice, developers pay subcontractors in (future) apartments in exchange for materials and labor. I argue that, in klering transactions, housing serves as an asset and a means of payment. The pr…
Housing, Speculation, and Social Change in Albania
The housing market has been central to the postcommunist transformations of Albania’s economy and society to a neoliberal model. Yet informal practices remain widespread, fostering speculation and corruption. Building booms, internal migration, and a growing tourism sector have reshaped the capital and other cities, as well as coastal areas, with inequality rising
Economics (5 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Finance (3 works) · Finance (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Market economy (3 works) · Political economy (3 works) · Sociology (3 works) · Speculation (3 works)