Description
Book Synopsis 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.
Trade Review “Travelling with the Argonauts is undoubtedly a treasure trove of information for anyone with a broader interest in informal trade and migration in Central and Eastern Europe. More specifically, this study is an excellent first-hand resource on informality: that is, social interaction unregulated ‘by official institutions and rules’ in Poland.” • JRAI (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)
“I find it very hard to fault this book. It is wide-ranging, while also having a consistent set of related arguments, and ethnographically exceptionally rich… An interesting and original work in many dimensions.” • Robert Parkin, University of Oxford
Table of Contents Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Restricted Verticality Perspective in Researching Informal Networks: Concepts, Definitions and Theoretical Approaches to Informality
Chapter 2. Empirical Research on Informal Social Phenomena and the Limitations of Formal Methods
Chapter 3. Exiting the Emic-Etic Logic: How to Conduct Successful Fieldwork on Informal Phenomena
Chapter 4. Thinking Beyond Sectors: Informal Economy and Informal Networks
Chapter 5. Escaping Locality: Ethnography beyond Systems, Zones, Countries and Sites
Chapter 6. Interfaces between the Formal and the Informal: Actors, Places and Routes
Afterword
Bibliography
Index
