Publication:
Shuttling goods, weaving consumer tastes: Informal trade between Turkey and Russia

Placeholder

Departments

School / College / Institute

Program

KU Authors

Co-Authors

Publication Date

Language

Embargo Status

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Alternative Title

Abstract

In 'top down' conceptualizations of globalization, people often enter the analytical picture merely as resisters to globalization or as receivers of corporate produced goods, messages and ideas. This article, in contrast, focuses on a process in which 'ordinary' people are the active makers of global processes and meanings. I describe the transnational trade network between post-Soviet countries and Turkey, in which Western fashions and images get circulated and transformed through the activities of informal entrepreneurs. I thus challenge accounts of globalization in which the dissemination of images is depicted as a top down process originating in corporations located in metropolitan countries. Based on ethnographic evidence collected in Istanbul and Moscow on the informal 'shuttle trade', I demonstrate that the mobility of 'ordinary' people across borders facilitates the flows of signs and images. Moreover, Western images and fashions get remoulded and acquire new meanings in the process of circulation.

Source

Publisher

Wiley

Subject

Geography, Regional planning, City planning

Citation

Has Part

Source

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

Book Series Title

Edition

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00710.x

item.page.datauri

Link

Rights

Copyrights Note

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By

0

Views

0

Downloads

View PlumX Details