Globalization from Below ─ The World's Other Economy

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.

Gordon Mathews is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket (2000) and Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong (2011).

Gustavo Lins Ribeiro is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Brasilia and Research Fellow of Brazil’s National Council of Scientific and Technological Development. He has written Transnational Capitalism and Hydropolitics in Argentina (1994) and edited (with Arturo Escobar) World Anthropologies (2006).

Carlos Alba Vega is Professor and Researcher at El Colegio de Mexico. He has been a visiting fellow in universities in Mexico, France, Germany and the United States.

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 Mathews 5. 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: Globalization From Below and the Non-Hegemonic World System Gustavo Lins Ribeiro