Currencies of Imagination : Channeling Money and Chasing Mobility in Vietnam / Ivan V. Small.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Small, Ivan V., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Transnationalism--Social aspects--Vietnam.

Transnationalism.

Transnationalism--Social aspects--United States.

Families--Economic aspects--United States.

Families.

Families--Economic aspects--Vietnam.

Money--Social aspects--United States.

Money.

Money--Social aspects--Vietnam.

Immigrants--Family relationships--United States.

Immigrants.

Immigrants--Family relationships--Vietnam.

Emigrant remittances--Vietnam.

Emigrant remittances.

Vietnamese--United States--Social conditions.

Vietnamese.

Vietnamese--United States--Economic conditions.

Vietnam--Economic conditions--1975-.

Vietnam.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (217 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In Vietnam, international remittances from the Vietnamese diaspora are quantitatively significant and contribute important economic inputs. Yet beyond capital transfer, these diasporic remittance economies offer insight into an unfolding transformation of Vietnamese society through the extension of imaginations and ontological possibilities that accompany them. Currencies of Imagination examines the complex role of remittances as money and as gifts that flow across, and mediate between, transnational kinship networks dispersed by exile and migration.Long distance international gift exchanges and channels in a neoliberal political economy juxtapose the increasing cross-border mobility of remittance financial flows against the relative confines of state bounded bodies. In this contradiction Ivan V. Small reveals a creative space for emergent imaginaries that disrupt local structures and scales of desire, labor and expectation. Furthermore, the particular characteristics of remittance channels and mediums in a global economy, including transnational mobility and exchangeable value, affect and reflect the relations, aspirations, and orientations of the exchange participants. Small traces a genealogy of how this phenomenon has shifted through changing remittance forms and transfer infrastructures, from material and black market to formal bank and money services. Transformations in the affective and institutional relations among givers, receivers, and remittance facilitators accompany each of these shifts, illustrating that the socio-cultural work of remittances extends far beyond the formal economic realm they are usually consigned to.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Money, Gifts, and Flows

1. The "Dangerous" Gift

2. Sài Gòn, Overlaid by Hồ Chí Minh: Capitalist Desires and Deferrals

3. Coastal Flows and Hypothetical Horizons

4. The Beautiful, Tired Country

5. Crossing the Bridge . . . Home?

Conclusion: Not Yet Enough: Mobility and Its Malcontents

Afterword

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781501716881

1501716883

9781501716904

1501716905

OCLC:

1031425971