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What are the livelihood strategies pursued by people in the post-socialist societies of East-Central Europe? This paper critically evaluates the view that most of the population secures its livelihood through the formal economy and that only marginalized populations now have to rely on the informal economy (i.e. work beyond employment) for their livelihoods. Drawing upon extensive survey data from Ukraine, this paper reveals that only a small minority of households in this post-socialist society rely on the formal economy alone and that the vast majority depend on a plurality of both formal and informal economic practices to secure their livelihoods. The outcome is a call for a greater appreciation and recognition to be given to the role of the informal sector in post-socialist societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central argument of this paper pivots around the idea that the structure and functioning of the states and political systems of South Eastern Europe are strongly determined by a long lasting particular feature of the economies and societies of the region: their dualism. This feature has its origins in the modernization process, has evolved in parallel with it and has shaped in a distinctive way both the structure and the dynamics of the polities and states of these countries. The dualism of their economies is thus a key explanatory factor in any attempt to understand the dynamics of the region. Moreover, dualism has always played a crucial role in the process of international integration of South Eastern Europe in the European and global system and it is very likely that it will continue to play a major role in the future. Accordingly the approach articulated is not laying the emphasis on ethnicity, nationalism or religion as the mainstream approaches to the states and problems of the South East European region usually do, but on the regional political economies and on what this paper considers to be their key structural problem. It is indeed difficult to imagine and analyse the Balkan problems making abstraction of the powerful ethnic and religious forces that shaped the destiny of the region but it is important to approach these problems from different and complementary angles. The present analysis implies a simplification indeed, but it is an instrumental and pragmatic one that helps us to discern and disentangle some patterns or configurations of factors relevant for a better understanding of the internal evolutions and of the international integration prospects of South Eastern Europe. The main objective of the paper is to use a specific way of conceptualizing the political economy dynamics of the region in order to illuminate from a structural and historic perspective a crucial problem currently faced by the Balkan states in their attempt to settle on the path of self-sustained growth and European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to show that convergence or divergence in the European Union (EU) will be influenced by developments in the periphery of Europe to a considerable extent, although the core situation cannot be ignored. In essence, therefore, it is the relationship between core and periphery that will determine the future of the EU. The main thesis of this study is that the EU economic position is such that divergence is more likely to occur than convergence. The focus of the analysis is what has come to be known as ‘Peripheral Fordism’, which enables us lo suggest that periphery prospects for economic development are predicated upon substantial expansion of their industrial sectors based on indigenous forces. It is therefore the existing institutional structure within the EU that poses obstacles to convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]