Open Secrets and Knowing Smiles
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7100650 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alena Ledeneva (0000-0001-7130-6515, University College London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 720-736 |
| Publication date | 2011-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | East European Politics and Societies and Cultures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0888-3254 • E-ISSN: 1533-8371 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0888325410388558 |
| OpenAlex | W2017559485 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 26 |
| References cited | 10 |
Given the importance of informal ways of getting things done in postsocialist societies, research into the field of unwritten rules and informal practices has been slow to develop. In studying such rules and practices, the researcher often encounters skepticism or hostility stemming from the ways in which people relate to tacit agreements, or else she or he is greeted by an ambivalent smile of complicity—a knowing smile. This article draws a connection between knowing smiles and open secrets and argues that these notions illuminate a great deal about how the “grey areas” of social life function. It also suggests that such seemingly trivial aspects of everyday life can reveal profound features of social institutions and point in the direction of innovative research
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Complicity · Epistemology · Everyday life · Field (mathematics · Function (biology · Hostility · Political science · Skepticism · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology
Local community and ethical citizenship
Captured states and/or captured societies in the Western Balkans
Påskudd og straff
Management of ambiguity
Complaints are not Gifts. Dysfunctionality of the Institution of Complaints in the Field of Housing and Communal Services in Russia
Russian Instruments of Urban Planning from the Sociological Institutionalism Perspective
The Ontological Disunity of Money in Sociological Theory
Determinants of Reasons for Financial Disagreements in Married or Cohabiting Couples in Russia
Online Practices of the Economic Behavior of Russian Women during Maternity Leave
The Innovation Complex
Pro-life vs. pro-choice in a resurgent nation
Accomplishing public secrecy
Truck drivers and intermediaries of migration between Central Asia and the EU
Labour Mobility and Informality
Localization, Formalism, and Passivity
Hidden in full view
Research Ethics and Moral Dilemmas of Social Research in Post-Socialist Europe and Beyond
The State, Informal Networks, and Financial Market Regulation in Post-Soviet Russia, 1990–2008
But it is our duty!” Exploring Gazprom’s reluctance to Russian gas sector reform
Ambiguous spaces, empirical traces
Davabirzhaot! Conflicting claims on public space in Tbilisi between transparency and opaqueness
Uncorking Europeanisation
Reasonableness
Rethinking Qualitative Methodology around Masculinity
Books of Laughter and Forgetting
Soothing My Child's Soul and My Own
| Unique citing works | 26 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,17 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 25 |