In command economies of Soviet countries, China, and Vietnam, foods and services were often scare.
The practice of getting scare services and goods from informal contacts was widespread. In Chinese, it is called, in general sense, guanxi. In Russia, it is blat. Many other academic terms relates to that:
‘economy of favours’, ‘economy of shortage’, ‘second economy’, ‘culture of shortage’
How have those practice changed over time and how could they be used for analyses of contemporary social issues in the post-socialist countries are important questions.
People have said much about ‘social capital’ and often ignored this form of social capital in the post-socialist world.
This is a good review, it is worth having a look:
Ledeneva, A. (2008). "Blat and Guanxi: informal practices in Russia and China." Comparative Studies in Society and History 50(1): 118-144.
