ABSTRACT
Portes and Haller's concepts on informal economies and von Lampe's paradigm of transnational crime illustrate that sanctions-busting was necessary before turning into a normal, everyday practice. During later stages of this research project, informants increasingly voiced apprehension about the market. Inquiring about the actual practice of verc draped the overarching question of how material encounters influenced the social relations in Novi Pazar with yet another layer of ambiguity as informants connected informal practices with the Milosevic regime during later fieldwork stages. During the 1990s, in other words, one is no longer able to distinguish governing forces from transnational organized crime practices or informal trading that sustained ordinary citizens. The line between necessity and excess, ordinary and devious, became blurred. Informal material encounters thus led to an ensuing sense of anomia in the case of Serbia. Significantly, it was the government, Belgrade, that heralded this instability that led to the absolute breakdown of social norms.
