Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Gazdaságtudományi Kar Ahol tudás és szándék találkozik

Kutatás, tudomány  --  Tudományos közlemények  --  SZTE Gazdaságtudományi Kar közleményei  --  A szociális identitás, az információ és a piac

The social embedness of the underground economy

Ion Imbrescu
Economic activities mean not only official activities but also the activities that belong to the so call underground economy. In this paper, I try to define the sphere of underground econ-omy and to reveal the aspects of informal economy as part of it. Informal economy means those kinds of activities, which have predominant non-negative effects in the economic life of a country. There are several cases when in-formal activities belong to traditions or even cul-ture and not to pure economy. But, if these kinds of activities are used as special events, it is possible to have a positive and stimulating role in the development of the areas where they are present. I try to reveal in this paper that several informal activities created very strong liaisons between members of small communities of Almaj Valley, liaisons, which create a process of social identification.