Subverting Borders: Doing Research on Smuggling and Small-Scale Trade

Description

Small-scale trade and smuggling are part of everyday life at many borders. These trading activities often compensate for economic shortage that many households are suffering from in consequence of e.g. political transformation processes. Despite of the diversity of transborder small-scale trade and smuggling and their wide dispersion, not only in Europe, their reception within social sciences is relatively low. The contributions shed therefore light on research in geography and neighboured disciplines. On the basis of empirical research findings from borders all over the world, the authors thrive to analyse mechanisms and conditions of the informal activities and to detect parallels and differences of informal economic structures from different perspectives. This book is valuable reading for researchers in geography, sociology, ethnography, and in political science. Content: Front Matter....Pages 1-9 Introduction....Pages 11-19 Who has the right to forbid and who to trade? Making sense of illegality on the Polish-Ukrainian border....Pages 21-38 Cross-border trade and identity in the Afghan-Iranian border region....Pages 39-58 � verc and the � inobus: Small-scale smuggling in Vojvodina....Pages 59-83 Navigating uncertainty: Observations from the Congo-Rwanda border....Pages 85-106 Transborder trade on the Russian-Chinese border: Problems of interethnic communication....Pages 107-128 An economy of survival and reinventing the way of life: The case of oil commerce in Southeast Turkey....Pages 129-146 Shadow Triangle. Trans-border smuggling between Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro....Pages 147-170 From the Pamir frontier to international borders: Exchange relations of the borderland population....Pages 171-191 Scales of trade, informal economy and citizenship at Georgian-Azerbaijani borderlands....Pages 193-211 Crossing conflicting state boundaries: The Georgian-Abkhazian Ceasefire Line....Pages 213-231 ‘Winter-tyres-for-a-flower-bed’: Shuttle trade on the Finnish-Russian border....Pages 233-255 Back Matter....Pages 257-260