This superb historical and ethnographic study of the political economy of the Vega Baja region of Spain, one of the European Union’s Regional Economies,” takes up the difficult question of how to understand the growing alienation ordinary working people feel in the face of globalization. Combining rich oral histories with a sophisticated and nuanced structural understanding of changing political economies, the authors examine the growing divide between government and its citizens in a region that has in the last four decades been transformed from a primarily agricultural economy to a primarily industrial one. Offering a new form of ethnography appropriate for the study of suprastate polities and a globalized economy, Immediate Struggles contributes to our understanding of one region as well as the way we think about changing class relations, modes of production, and cultural practices in a newly emerging Europe. The authors also consider how phenomena such as the informal economy” and black market” are not marginal to the normal operation of state and economic institutions but are intertwined with both.

Immediate Struggles: People, Power, and Place in Rural Spain

History

Smith, Gavin

Narotzky, Susana

Europe

University of California Press

This superb historical and ethnographic study of the political economy of the Vega Baja region of Spain, one of the European Union’s “Regional Economies,” takes up the difficult question of how to understand the growing alienation ordinary working people feel in the face of globalization. Combining rich oral histories with a sophisticated and nuanced structural understanding of changing political economies, the authors examine the growing divide between government and its citizens in a region that has in the last four decades been transformed from a primarily agricultural economy to a primarily industrial one. Offering a new form of ethnography appropriate for the study of suprastate polities and a globalized economy, Immediate Struggles contributes to our understanding of one region as well as the way we think about changing class relations, modes of production, and cultural practices in a newly emerging Europe. The authors also consider how phenomena such as the “informal economy” and “black market” are not marginal to the normal operation of state and economic institutions but are intertwined with both.

The past decade has witnessed the phenomenal rise of cultural studies on both sides of the Atlantic. This text asks whether the very success of this comparatively new field of academic enquiry stands as a tribute to anthropology, or whether the success of cultural studies is evidence of anthropology's fragmentation and decline. Amidst fears that anthropology is being eclipsed, this collection of essays asks what kinds of relationships are feasible between anthropology and cultural studies, and how they might develop in the future. Is there scope for fruitful dialogue and, if so, on whose terms? Are there shared theoretical agendas? In adopting an interdisciplinary approach to the anthropology of complex cultural issues, the contributors to this volume review both the challenges and the potential insights of cultural studies approaches within their field of research, and chart a potentially new agenda for anthropology in an increasingly shared terrain of globally interacting cultures and identities.

New Directions in Economic Anthropology (Anthropology, Culture and Society Series)

Business & Money

Economics

Pluto Press

New expanded edition of a classic anthropology title that examines ethnicity as a dynamic and shifting aspect of social relations.

New Directions in Economic Anthropology

Grassroots Economies: Living with Austerity in Southern Europe (Anthropology, Culture and Society)

The austerity crisis has radically altered the economic landscape of Southern Europe. But alongside the decimation of public services and infrastructure lies the wreckage of a generation's visions for the future. In Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, there is a new, difficult reality of downward mobility. Grassroots Economies interrogates the effects of the economic crisis on the livelihood of working people, providing insight into their anxieties. Drawing on a rich seam of ethnographic material, it is a distinctive comparative analysis that explores the contradictions of their coping mechanisms and support structures. With a focus on gender, the book explores values and ideologies, including dispossession and accumulation. Ultimately it demonstrates that everyday interactions on the local scale provide a significant sense of the global.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Narotzky, Susana. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Narotzky, Susana

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Narotzky, Susana. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Immediate Struggles: People, Power, and Place in Rural Spain

Immediate Struggles: People, Power, and Place in Rural Spain

New Directions in Economic Anthropology (Anthropology, Culture and Society Series)

New Directions in Economic Anthropology

Grassroots Economies: Living with Austerity in Southern Europe (Anthropology, Culture and Society)