ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we define three key concepts that are used throughout the study: captured society, informal networks, and social closure. We outline the necessary preconditions and processes of societal capture, the social phenomena it affects, and its consequences. Next, we explore the various meanings of “informality,” examining how different disciplines interpret the term, and present a typology of informal networks founded on the insights from The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality. Finally, we argue that the functioning of captured societies and networks of trust and control is based on mechanisms of social closure: most informal practices in the public sphere in Southeast European societies are attempts to either monopolise resources and services (exclusionary closure) or find a way around it (usurpatory closure).
