Why do people turn to personal connections to get things done? Challenging widespread views of favors as means of survival in transitioning contexts, this volume demonstrates that these contemporary globalized forms of flexible governance are not contradictory to one another, but often mutually constitutive.

First ethnographic study of favors in a former Yugoslav country; First ethnographic study of a welfare system in a former Yugoslav country; It explores how the same people pursue favors across several fields (social protection, healthcare, humanitarianism), rather than just to focus on one field; It offers a new theoretical interpretation of the role of ambiguity in neoliberalism.