Joseph P. Helou is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs in the Department of Political and International Studies at the Lebanese American University. His research interests include informality, the political economy of state and informal governance, crisis politics, everyday practices, elites, sectarianism, plural societies, and the politics of the global south. Abel Polese works at Dublin City University. His main research focus is informal governance in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He is also engaged in debates on open science and science management and is the author of The SCOPUS Diaries and the (il)logics of Academic Survival: A Short Guide to Design Your Own Strategy and Survive Bibliometrics, Conferences, and Unreal Expectations in Academia.