Petty Capitalists and Globalization

Alan Smart And Josephine Smart - Editors

Description

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.

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

Sujets

• Entrepreneurship
• Development studies
• Anthropology

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791483572
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Petty Capitalists and Globalization

SUNY series in Anthropological Studies of Contemporary Issues Jack R. Rollwagen, editor

Petty Capitalists and Globalization

Flexibility, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development

Edited by Alan Smart and Josephine Smart

S TATE U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK P RESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2005 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatso- ever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Petty capitalists and globalization: flexibility, entrepreneurship, and economic development / edited by Alan Smart and Josephine Smart. p. cm. — (SUNY series in anthropological studies of contemporary issues) Includes bibliography references and index. ISBN 0–7914–6399–0 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 0–7914–6400–8 1. Small business. 2. International trade. 3. Globalization—Economic aspects. I. Smart, Alan. II. Smart, Josephine. III. Series.

HD2341.P474 2005 338.6—dc22

2004008051

List of Illustrations

Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction Alan Smart and Josephine Smart

Chapter 2. Petty Production: The Enduring Alternative Hill Gates

Chapter 3. Movers and Fixers: Historical Forms of Exploitation and the Marketing of a Regional Economy in Spain Gavin Smith and Susana Narotzky

Chapter 4. Flexibility for Whom?: Small-Scale Garment Manufacturing in Rural Mexico Frances Abrahamer Rothstein

Chapter 5. Capitalism from Below?: Small Firms, Petty Capitalists, and Regional Transformations in Eastern Europe Adrian Smith

Chapter 6. Global Market and Local Concerns: Petty Capitalists in the Brianza Simone Ghezzi

Chapter 7. TheyWerePromised a Rosegarden: Reunification and Globalization in Small- and Medium-size Firms in Eastern Germany Hans Buechler and Judith-Maria Buechler

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Contents

Chapter 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

Chapter 9. Toward A (Proper) Postwar History of Southeast Asian Petty Capitalism: Predation, the State, and Chinese Small Business Capital in Malaysia Donald M. Nonini

Chapter 10. Labor Standard Regulation and the Modernization of Small-Scale Carpet Production in Kathmandu Nepal Tom O’Neill

Chapter 11. Fair(er) Trade for Global Markets: Capitalizing on Work Alternatives in Crafts in the Rural Philippines B. Lynne Milgram

Chapter 12: The Moral Significance of Petty Capitalism Michael Blim

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index

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Figures

Illustrations

8.1. The Geneology of ERSO Spin-offs

10.2. Map of Boudha/Jorpat

Tables

5.1. Number of Employees in Small, Medium, and Large Firms in Slovakia, 1997–1999

5.2. Key Regional Economic Indicators, Slovakia

5.3. Distribution of SME Employment in Slovakia, 1999

5.4. Employment Size Profile of Apparel Enterprises in Four Slovak Regions (% of Local Apparel Firms)

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Introduction

Alan Smart and Josephine Smart

This volume contends that while the enterprises operated by petty capitalists may be small, there is nothing petty about their significance for the operation of economies and for our understand- ing of contemporary societies, families, and localities. Petty capi- talists regularly operate in the ambiguous boundaries between capital and labor, cooperation and exploitation, family and econ- omy, tradition and modernity, friends and competitors. By examin- ing how these relationships vary over time, space, and culture, the study of petty capitalists offers insights into an era where assem- bly lines are deconstructed and scattered across the globe, and where rapid and flexible response to desires can make the differ- ence between economic success and failure. An ever-increasing proportion of interactions cross national boundaries. At the same time, changing technologies and regula- tory contexts have made it more compelling for even the smallest firms to either compete on a transnational terrain, or at least to be wary of competitive threats from beyond their nation’s border. Globalization has usually been seen in terms of the activities of large private corporations and the governments of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Group of 7 (G-7) or Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD-23) who are changing condi- tions to facilitate freer flow of trade and investment. Hypermobile capital is widely thought to have improved its negotiating position

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