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This study brings an extended Bourdieusian theoretical framework to the analysis of life- strategies of small farmers in four SEE societies (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia). Practices and strategies of farmer households are situated in two partially overlapping fields – the field of formal and of informal economy. It is based upon a qualitative analysis of 25 interviewed households. The paper covers the structural conditions of the households’ participation in both fields of ‘play’, the analysis of household capitals (economic/agrarian, social and cultural) and the interpretation of practice – strategy dimension. The framework is extended to include the exploration of reflexivity and agency amongst the households. The findings indicate that various structural limitations impede the development of successful practices in the formal field (unless the households have exceptional levels of agency), and that the most common life- strategy was food self-provisioning along with the relying on the practices in the informal field enabled by social capital.