On the Assemblages of Informal and Formal Transnational Social Protection

Social protection is an assemblage of informal and formal elements. These opposites - informal' and formal' - have been a feature of social policy discourse for a long time. Here, informal social protection is taken as that provided by interpersonal networks, whereas formal social protection is conceptualised as being provided by the state and organisations. This article draws on several bodies of literature on social protection to show how the informal and formal are entangled. We argue for tracing them as assemblages', going beyond a static understanding of social protection because social actors constantly negotiate the use of informal welfare schemes with formal ones. These negotiations have implications for social inequalities arising out of heterogeneities. Therefore, this article advocates an understanding that recognises that informal and formal protection are interconnected and approached as an assemblage that is important to life chances and, thus, to the production and reproduction of inequalities in transnational social spaces. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.