This book explores globalization as actually experienced by most of the world’s people, buying goods from street vendors brought by traders moving past borders and across continents under the radar of the law. The dimensions and practices of ‘globalization from below’ are depicted and analyzed in detail by a team of international scholars. Topics covered include the ‘New Silk Road’, African traders in China, street hawking in Calcutta and pirate CDs in Mexico. The chapters provide intimate portrayals of routes, markets and people in locations across the globe and explore theories that can help make sense of these complex and fascinating case studies. Students of globalization, economic anthropology and developing-world economics will find the book invaluable.

Reviews

‘The word globalization summons up images of transnational corporations and internet-savvy human rights campaigners. This important book brings to our attention a wholly different and quite fascinating phenomenon - vast webs of traders, travelers, and marketers, crossing borders and transforming economies and societies from the bottom up.’ - Josiah Heyman, University of Texas at El Paso, USA

‘This is globalization not readily accessible to official inspection or conventional measurements. But ethnographers get to it - and here they show its importance in the emergent world society.’ - Ulf Hannerz, Stockholm University, Sweden, and author of Anthropology's World

Contents

Introduction: What is Globalization from Below? Gordon Mathews and Carlos Alba Vega Part 1: Mapping Globalization from Below: Routes, Nodes, Markets 1. Following the New Silk Road between Yiwu and Cairo Olivier Pliez 2. "They Come from China": Pirate CDs in Mexico in Transnational Perspective Jose Carlos G. Aguiar 3. Ciudad del Este and the Brazilian Circuits of Commercial Distribution Fernando Rabossi 4. Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong as a Laboratory of Neoliberalism Gordon M5. Illegalisms and the City of Sao Pãulo Vera da Silva Telles Part 2: Embodying Globalization from Below: Entrepreneurs, Traders, Peddlers 6. Hong Kong Petty Capitalists Investing in China: Risk Tolerance, Uncertain Investment Environments, Success and Failure Alan Smart and Josephine Smart 7. From Secondhand Clothing to Cosmetics: How Philippine-Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fill Gaps in Cross-Border Trade Lynne Milgram 8. Mexican "Ant Traders" in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez Border Region: Tensions between Globalization, Securitization and New Mobility Regimes Mélissa Gauthier 9. African Traders in Guangzhou, China: Routes, Reasons, Profits, Dreams Yang Yang 10. In the Shadow of the Mall: Street Hawking in Global Calcutta Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay 11. Localism Meets Globalization in an American Street Market Robert Shepherd 12. Local Politics and Economic Globalization from Below: The Peddler Leaders of Mexico City’s Historic Center Streets Carlos Alba Vega Conclusion: Globalizati...