Events

Workshop: Diverging (individual vs state) moralities? Towards an informality framework beyond the simplistic legal-illegal  binary or moral-immoral

Diverging (individual vs state) moralities? Towards an informality framework beyond the simplistic legal-illegal  binary or moral-immoral

9 October (DAY 1 of the workshop)  

Session 1 (09:00–10:30)

Theme: Mobilities and Margins: Life Across Borderlands
Chair: TBC

• Thanachate Wisaijorn – Zomia, Borderlands, and Informality: Rethinking Highland Spaces in Thai-Lao Relations

• Nguyen Thi Dien – Beyond the Closure: How COVID-19 Reshaped Cross-border Labors’ Lives and Livelihoods in Vietnam's Border Provinces

• Floramante SJ Ponce – How Young People Become Scammers in the Golden Triangle, Northwestern Laos

• Sarah Turner – Between recognition and reproach: Informal mobilities and everyday negotiations of cyclo drivers in Hanoi, Vietnam

Coffee Break (10:30–11:00)

Session 2 (11:00–12:30)

Theme: Screens and Schemes: Digital Economies and State bypass
Chair: Dr. Rior Santos, De La Salle University

• Shriyananda Rathnayake – Bypassing the State through Screens: Gendered Informality and Survival Economies in Post-Crisis Sri Lanka

• Rior Santos – PisoNet: Informal Digital Connectivity and Moral Economies of Bypassing the State in the Philippines

• Arif Budy Pratama – From Informal to Digital Governance: How Digitalization and Financial Services Eradicate Petty Corruption Among Street-Level Bureaucrats

• Sri Hastjarjo – "Homeless Media” as Informal Governance: Navigating Morality, Trust, and Legitimacy Beyond the State in Indonesia

Lunch Break (12:30–14:00)

Session 3 (14:00–15:30)

Theme: Culture in Practice: Identity and Informal Creative Economies
Chair: TBC

• Andre Alfonso R. Gutierrez – Against the ISBN: An Inquiry into the 21st Century Praxis of Alternative Literary Publishing in the Philippines

• Joseph Helou –

• Vien T.T. Dinh – From wild foraging to community cultivation: the formalization of Vietnamese migrant foodways and identity in Japan

• Bernard Daniel Eseo- Informalities of Humor: The Case of Filipino Online Stand-Up

Coffee Break (15:30–16:00)

Session 4 (16:00–17:30)

Theme: Moral Economies & Informal Governance
Chair: TBC

• Sira Nukulkit – Traces of Matriarchal Antagonistic Dichotomy in the Thai Economy

• Kamil Wielecki – In the seat of a marshrutka driver: navigating Bishkek’s streets and moral economies

• Kelly Chaib De Mares – Navigating Gray Zones: Moral Economies of Sanctions Evasion in Georgia and Kazakhstan

• Asankojo Isaev – Resilience of the Informal “Toi Economy” in Kyrgyzstan: The monetization of tradition and the rise of a feast show business industry

DAY 2, 10 October

Session 5 (09:00–10:30)

Theme:  Environmental Governance & Resistance
Chair: TBC

• Atina Rosydiana – Water Homecapes: Improvised Infrastructure and the Everyday Politics of Urban Informality

• Nguyen Thi Minh Hanh – The role of informal institutions in Environmental Governance: Reconciling Economic and Ecological interests through the Case of Xuan Thuy National Park

• Chieh-Ming – Blurring the Boundaries: Knowledge Conflicts and Informality in Bangkok’s Urban Tree Management

• Danny Marks – Beyond Economics: Informal Hegemony and the Politics of Energy Transition in Thailand 

Coffee Break (10:30–11:00)

Session 6 (11:00–12:30)

Theme: Reproducing Inequality: Gender, Labor, and the Care Economy
Chair: Waraporn Chatratichart, Chulalongkorn University

• Valentina Bodrug-Lungu, Eugenia Ganea & Svetlana Andries – Vulnerability and the Construction of Motherhood

• Anastasiia Omelianik – Political Care Among Ukrainian Grassroots and Beyond

• Roxanne Doron – Sachet Economy in a Tingi Culture: Gendered Labor, Corporate Exploitation, and Survival in Philippine Informal Settlements

• Goran Bandov & Kavinda Ratnapala – Resistance to Legal Reform that enabled informality in Sri Lanka’s Industrial Working Class

Lunch Break (12:30–14:00)

Session 7 (14:00–15:30)

Theme: Governing the Informal City: Infrastructure, Everyday Politics, and Urban Life
Chair: TBC

• Sirima Thongsawang – Bangkok (In)formality and ‘Anulom’ as Conflict Resolution? Street Food and Urban Governance Dilemma

• Zaki Arrobi – Everyday Governance and Informal Moral Economies in Urban Kampung of Jakarta

• Joselito T. Sescon & John Rovic L. Catangay - The Blurring of Formal-Informal Binaries of Employment: Perception of Workers Living in Urban Informal Settlements in Pasig City, Metro Manila

Coffee Break (15:30–16:00)

Session 8 (16:00–17:30)

Theme: State, Community, and Platform Governance in Southeast Asia’s Informal Economy
Chair: TBC

• Aulia Rahman  – Crossing Governance Borders: Informal Recycling and the Politics of Inclusion in Indonesia’s Circular Economy

• Minh Nguyen  – The New Social Contract in Platform Economy: The Case Study of the Catering Sector in Vietnam

• Brenda Andrias  – Women's role in community governance of informal marketplaces, case study from Papua New Guinea

DAY 3, 11 October 

Session 9  (09:00–10:30)

Theme: Rethinking Reform: Informality, Institutions, and the Edges of the State
Chair: Floramante SJ Ponce, PhD. Universite Libre de Bruxelles 

• Eka Zuni Lusi Astuti – The Struggle of the Coastal Farmers Union (the PPLP) against Land Grabbing in Kulon Progo, Indonesia

• Manotar Tampubolon – Marijuana Decriminalization as Legal Reform: Lessons from the Netherlands and Thailand’s Diverging Models

• Amphone Vongsouphanh – State and Cooperative Relations: Diverging (In)Formality

• Wei Lit Yew – Bypassing the State? The Institutionalisation of Informal Gated Communities in Urban Malaysia

Coffee Break (10:30–11:00)

Session 10 ( 11:00-12:30)

Theme: Theorizing Informality & Elite Networks

Chair: TBC

1. Namchoke Sasikornwong – A post-dualistic approach to informal economy by Thailand’s sufficiency economy: capitalism localised, Thai culture universalised

2. Liam O'Farrell – “You basically know everyone”: wealth elites and decision-makers in three European secrecy jurisdictions

3. Phuong-Linh Pham – The informal side of global waste: a case study of Minh Khai’s plastic recycling economy

4. Akkanut Wantanasombut - Thailand's platform economy

Lunch Break (12:30–14:00)

Session 11 ( 14:00-15:30)

Theme: Resistance from Below: Informality and Precarity in Motion
Chair: TBC

• Moign Khawaja – Beyond the Battlefield: Investigating the Informality and Insurgency Nexus in Southern Thailand

• Nguyen Thi Minh Khuê – Underground Finance - Phuong/Ho and Livelihood Cycles in Nam Dinh, Vietnam

• Myla M. Arcinas – Navigating the Shadows: Informalities and Precarity in the Labor of Filipina Domestic Workers Overseas 

• Kai-Yang Huang – Smuggling, Morality, and Survival: Informal Governance under Martial Law in the Matsu Islands