1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910816454403321

Autore

Irek Małgorzata

Titolo

Travelling with the argonauts : informal networks seen without a vertical lens / / Malgorzata Irek

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York ; ; Oxford : , : Berghahn Books, , [2018]

©2018

ISBN

1-78533-899-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (234 pages)

Disciplina

382.094

Soggetti

Trade routes - Europe - History

Business networks - Europe - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The restricted verticality perspective in researching informal networks : concepts, definitions and theoretical approaches to informality -- Empirical research on informal social phenomena and the limitations of formal methods -- Exiting the emic-etic logic : how to conduct successful fieldwork on informal phenomena -- Thinking beyond sectors : informal economy and informal networks -- Escaping locality : ethnography beyond systems, zones, countries and sites -- Interfaces between the formal and the informal : actors, places and routes.

Sommario/riassunto

Drawing on rich ethnographic materials from longitudinal fieldwork on informal trading routes across Europe, Travelling with the Argonauts offers a new perspective in the research of the social space, reflecting on how best to investigate amorphous social phenomena, such as informal networks. Breaking with much current theory, the approach detailed here – the ‘Restricted Verticality Perspective’ – examines the horizontal dimension of social relations, and understands informality not as marginal or substandard, but as life itself, as the real experience of ordinary people.