Informality was originally studied in the context of informal working conditions. Nowadays, however, informality means much more. It is a collective term for the „world’s open secrets, unwritten rules and hidden practices assembled […] as ‘ways of getting things done’.“ (Ledeneva, 2018, S. 1)

This research project examines the extent to which informality comes into play when mobilizing human and fundamental rights. One answer is that human and fundamental rights can only be rules of the game for statehood if they are mobilized. This research project examines how this occurs and the role informality plays in the process. The project focuses on the informal space between lawyers and laypeople in Latin America. The project evaluates interviews with informal legal service providers from Colombia, The project evaluates interviews with informal legal service providers in Colombia, as well as textual and visual data on their services and workplaces.

The research project is funded by the Rectorate of the University of Duisburg-Essen as part of the UDE Postdoc Seedfunding following a two-stage competitive review process. 

The research project is based on preliminary work that was started by PI Dr. Markus Ciesielski, along with Luis Bastidas (University of Bayreuth) and Dr. Janneth Aldana (Universidad Javeriana Bogotá), and was funded by the Instituto Capaz.