Informality or corruption
A critique of quantitative corruption research
Svetlana Barsukova, Elena Denisova-Schmidt, Alena V. Ledeneva
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The fight against corruption is attracting worldwide attention. Quantitative methods for recording and measuring corruption have one weakness: they are blind to the respective social and local context in which people use informal practices. Furthermore, not every informal action is corrupt. In order to precisely determine the boundaries and to be able to assess the causes and forms of corruption, corruption research needs to use stronger qualitative methods and ethnographic techniques.
(Osteuropa 8-9/2018, pp. 25–40)