Publication: Globalization from Below

Prof. Gordon Mathews in our department co-edited Globalization from Below: The World's Other Economy with Gustavo Lins Ribeiro and Carlos Alba Vega. 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. Previously, Prof. Gordon Mathews has also discussed this topic in great ethnographic details in his book Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions.

Book Description
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.

Review
‘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