The State and the Use of Resources: Introduction

Abstract

The article is an introduction to the thematic section of the issue on the “Economy of Informal Useof Natural Resources in the North, Siberia, and Far East”. The guest editors outline the metho­dological and theoretical foundations of the research project carried out at the intersection of anthro-pology of the state and study of the informal economy. The terms used in the designation of “shadow”and “hidden” economic practices characterize their particular position in relations with the state,which is the principal focus of the contributors (V.V. Vasilieva, K.A. Gavrilova, V.N. Davydov,T.N. Zhuravskaia and N.P. Ryzhova, L. Ia. Rakhmanova). All cases under consideration are united by a common ethnographic context (remoteness, vanishing infrastructure, closure of the main enterprise, abundance of natural resources, and wide involvement of the population in the informal use ofnatural resources), yet they illustrate phenomena that are different in their genesis and nature. Due tothe complexity and sensitivity of the topic, the authors adhered to the principle of data anonymization both in the collecting of field material and in the final presentation of the project’s outcome.