Economy's tension : the dialectics of community and market / Stephen Gudeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gudeman, Stephen F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic anthropology.

Economics--Sociological aspects.

Economics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (196 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Berghahn Books, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why are we obsessed with calculating our selections? The author argues that competitive trade nurtures calculative reason, which provides the ground for most discourses on economy. But market descriptions of economy are incomplete. Drawing on a range of materials from small ethnographic contexts to global financial markets, the author shows that economy is dialectically made up of two value realms, termed mutuality and impersonal trade. One or the other may be dominant; however, market reason usually cascades into and debases the mutuality on which it depends. Using this cross-cultural model,

Contents:

Models, mutuality, and trade

Exchange as mutuality

Trade's reason

Property and base

Contingency or necessity? The dialectic of practices

Making money

Seeking a balance.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [166]-181) and index.

ISBN:

1-80758-951-X

0-85745-799-3

1-282-62706-6

9786612627064

0-85745-131-6

OCLC:

645101123