Skip to product information
1 of 1

Traders and Tinkers

Regular price $30.00
Sale price $30.00 Regular price $30.00
Sale Sold out
The term "tinker" calls to mind nomadic medieval vendors who operate on the fringe of formal society. Excluded from elite circles and characterized by an ability to leverage minimal resources, thes...
Read More
  • Format:
  • 08 August 2023
View Product Details

The term "tinker" calls to mind nomadic medieval vendors who operate on the fringe of formal society. Excluded from elite circles and characterized by an ability to leverage minimal resources, these tradesmen live and die by their ability to adapt their stores to the popular tastes of the day. In Delhi in the 21st century, an extensive network of informal marketplaces, or bazaars, has evolved over the course of the city's history, across colonial and postcolonial regimes. Their resilience as an economic system is the subject of this book. Today, instead of mending and selling fabrics and pots, these street vendors are primarily associated with electronic products—computers, cell phones, motherboards, and video games. This book offers a deep ethnography of three Delhi bazaars, and a cast of tinkers, traders, magicians, street performers, and hackers who work there. It is an exploration, and recognition, of the role of bazaars and tinkers in the modern global economy, driving globalization from below. In Delhi, and across the world, these street markets work to create a new information society, as the global popular classes aspire to elite consumer goods they cannot afford except in counterfeit.

files/i.png Icon
Price: $30.00
Pages: 248
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Imprint: Stanford University Press
Series: Culture and Economic Life
Publication Date: 08 August 2023
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781503636002
Format: Paperback
BISACs:

Maitrayee Deka is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex.
Introduction
1. Bazaar Aesthetics, Commerce, and Commons
2. Bazaar Pricing and Bargaining
3. Bazaar Tinkering, Jugaad, and Popular Knowledge
4. Bazaar Ethics and a Common Human Condition
5. Bazaar Platforms: Encounters with a New Competitor
Conclusion