Petty Capitalists and Globalization
Flexibility, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development
Published on 1. January 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
325 pages
978-0-7914-6400-7 (ISBN)
Description
Examines how small firms, like large ones, are mobilizing to compete in a global economy.
Globalization is often seen as driven by large corporations and supranational organizations. Enterprises operated by petty capitalists may be small, but there is nothing petty about their significance for the operation of economies or our understanding of contemporary societies, families, and localities. Petty Capitalism and Globalization uses ethnographic research to examine how small firms in Europe, Asia, and Latin America have been compelled to operate and compete in a fast-moving transnational economic environment. From Nepalese rug makers to German bakers to Taiwanese memory chip designers, these fascinating case studies delve into the complex situation of petty capitalists, often ambiguously situated between capital and labor, cooperation and exploitation, family and economy, tradition and modernity, friends and competitors. Understanding the position of petty capitalists in a global economy provides lessons in the potential and limitations of promoting small firms and entrepreneurship as a route to sustainable development.
Globalization is often seen as driven by large corporations and supranational organizations. Enterprises operated by petty capitalists may be small, but there is nothing petty about their significance for the operation of economies or our understanding of contemporary societies, families, and localities. Petty Capitalism and Globalization uses ethnographic research to examine how small firms in Europe, Asia, and Latin America have been compelled to operate and compete in a fast-moving transnational economic environment. From Nepalese rug makers to German bakers to Taiwanese memory chip designers, these fascinating case studies delve into the complex situation of petty capitalists, often ambiguously situated between capital and labor, cooperation and exploitation, family and economy, tradition and modernity, friends and competitors. Understanding the position of petty capitalists in a global economy provides lessons in the potential and limitations of promoting small firms and entrepreneurship as a route to sustainable development.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-6400-7 (9780791464007)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Alan Smart | Josephine Smart
Petty Capitalists and Globalization
Flexibility, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development
E-Book
02/2012
State University of New York Press
€38.49
Available for download
Persons
Alan Smart and Josephine Smart are Professors of Anthropology at the University of Calgary. Alan Smart is the author of Making Room: Squatter Clearance in Hong Kong. Josephine Smart is the author of The Political Economy of Street Hawkers in Hong Kong and the coeditor (with Martha W. Rees) of Plural Globalities in Multiple Localities: New World Borders.
Content
List of Illustrations
1. Introduction
Alan Smart and Josephine Smart
2. Petty Production: The Enduring Alternative
Hill Gates
3. Movers and Fixers: Historical Forms of Exploitation and the Marketing of a Regional Economy in Spain
Gavin Smith and Susana Narotzky
4. Flexibility for Whom?: Small-Scale Garment Manufacturing in Rural Mexico
Frances Abrahamer Rothstein
5. Capitalism from Below?: Small Firms, Petty Capitalists, and Regional Transformations in Eastern Europe
Adrian Smith
6. Global Market and Local Concerns: Petty Capitalists in the Brianza
Simone Ghezzi
7. They Were Promised a Rosegarden: Reunification and Globalization in Small- and Medium-size Firms in Eastern Germany
Hans Buechler and Judith-Maria Buechler
8. New Firm Formation and Technical Upgrading in the Taiwanese Semiconductor Industry: Is Petty Commodity Production Still Relevant to High-Technology Development?
Jinn-yuh Hsu
9. Toward A (Proper) Postwar History of Southeast Asian Petty Capitalism: Predation, the State, and Chinese Small Business Capital in Malaysia
Donald M. Nonini
10. Labor Standard Regulation and the Modernization of Small-Scale Carpet Production in Kathmandu Nepal
Tom O'Neill
11. Fair(er) Trade for the Global Markets: Capitalizing on Work Alternatives in Crafts in the Rural Philippines
B. Lynne Milgram
12: The Moral Significance of Petty Capitalism
Michael Blim
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
1. Introduction
Alan Smart and Josephine Smart
2. Petty Production: The Enduring Alternative
Hill Gates
3. Movers and Fixers: Historical Forms of Exploitation and the Marketing of a Regional Economy in Spain
Gavin Smith and Susana Narotzky
4. Flexibility for Whom?: Small-Scale Garment Manufacturing in Rural Mexico
Frances Abrahamer Rothstein
5. Capitalism from Below?: Small Firms, Petty Capitalists, and Regional Transformations in Eastern Europe
Adrian Smith
6. Global Market and Local Concerns: Petty Capitalists in the Brianza
Simone Ghezzi
7. They Were Promised a Rosegarden: Reunification and Globalization in Small- and Medium-size Firms in Eastern Germany
Hans Buechler and Judith-Maria Buechler
8. New Firm Formation and Technical Upgrading in the Taiwanese Semiconductor Industry: Is Petty Commodity Production Still Relevant to High-Technology Development?
Jinn-yuh Hsu
9. Toward A (Proper) Postwar History of Southeast Asian Petty Capitalism: Predation, the State, and Chinese Small Business Capital in Malaysia
Donald M. Nonini
10. Labor Standard Regulation and the Modernization of Small-Scale Carpet Production in Kathmandu Nepal
Tom O'Neill
11. Fair(er) Trade for the Global Markets: Capitalizing on Work Alternatives in Crafts in the Rural Philippines
B. Lynne Milgram
12: The Moral Significance of Petty Capitalism
Michael Blim
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index