Description
Book SynopsisAn examination of the vast counterfeit clothing marketplace in Buenos Aires known as La Salada, this book is the first ethnographic study to examine how aspirations shape behaviors of workers in an informal and illegal economy.
Trade Review[
Making It at Any Cost] is a sophisticated piece of ethnographic work, especially relevant for academic research focused on the study of urban economic structures in Latin American cities. Throughout the book, the well-structured analytical sequence and narrative followed by the author is captivating and manages to engage the reader in the everyday living of the inhabitants of La Salada. * European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *
[Dewey] demonstrates a clear attachment to both the location and his subjects and provides a rich description of their lives and their struggles...One of the core values of ethnographic research is an immersive and detailed depiction of a setting, and Dewey meets this objective. * American Journal of Sociology *
Making It at Any Cost is a fantastic ethnographic work that enters into great detail without boring the reader, and without failing to acknowledge the importance of the broader spatial and historical context...
Making It at Any Cost is the best of all existing books on La Salada. Colleagues working on how social relations are governed in illegal marketplaces and on sweatshop economies producing fast fashion will most probably be left with pages of questions, answers, and doubts that will modify their research agendas. * Economic Sociology *
[
Making It at Any Cost] is an important contribution to the role local economic practices play in organizing commitments, subjectivities, and personal trajectories, and marries European and US economic sociology with Latin American studies of urban and labor informality, aiming to expand some of its lessons beyond the site-specific characteristics of La Salada...The book calls our attention to the creativity, and resilience of subaltern agents in the global economy...This is an excellent book that uses creatively the case of La Salada to elegantly fill gaps in the US and European economic sociology scholarship, expending current understandings of morality in illegal and contested markets. As such, it would be a great addition to courses on informal markets, studies of morality, global chains, and Latin American urban studies. * Social Forces *
Making It at Any Cost provides a nuanced account of a counterfeit market that reveals itself to be as rational, hardworking, and creative as any of its 'legal' counterparts in the global supply chain. In doing so, the book shows how actors themselves create order and sustained relationships precisely where the state’s presence is most attenuated and where distrust predominates...Future scholars will do well to return to this book. * Latin American Politics and Society *
Table of Contents
- Maps
- The Structure of La Salada Marketplace
- List of La Salada Characters
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Aspirations amid Distrust
- Part I: History, Place, and Politics
- Chapter 1. The Garment Market and the Marketplace
- Chapter 2. Governing La Salada
- Chapter 3. With God and the Devil
- Part II: Prisoners of Aspirations
- Chapter 4. All I Want Is a Sweatshop
- Chapter 5. The Garment Entrepreneur at La Salada
- Chapter 6. Dynamics of Aspirations
- Part III: Aspirations in Action
- Chapter 7. Narratives of Sacrifice and Autonomy
- Chapter 8. Taste, Credit, and Bullets
- Chapter 9. Squatters, Cart-Pullers, and Demolition
- Conclusion
- Epilogue
- Methodological Appendix
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
