American value : migrants, money, and meaning in El Salvador and the United States / David Pedersen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pedersen, David.

Series:

Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning

Chicago studies in practices of meaning

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Salvadorans--United States--Economic conditions.

Salvadorans.

Salvadorans--United States--Social conditions.

Emigrant remittances--El Salvador.

Emigrant remittances.

Salvadorans--United States.

El Salvador--Foreign relations--United States.

El Salvador.

United States--Foreign relations--El Salvador.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (337 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Over the past half-century, El Salvador has transformed dramatically. Historically reliant on primary exports like coffee and cotton, the country emerged from a brutal civil war in 1992 to find much of its national income now coming from a massive emigrant workforce-over a quarter of its population-that earns money in the United States and sends it home. In American Value, David Pedersen examines this new way of life as it extends across two places: Intipucá, a Salvadoran town infamous for its remittance wealth, and the Washington, DC, metro area, home to the second largest population of Salvadorans in the United States. Pedersen charts El Salvador's change alongside American deindustrialization, viewing the Salvadoran migrant work abilities used in new lowwage American service jobs as a kind of primary export, and shows how the latest social conditions linking both countries are part of a longer history of disparity across the Americas. Drawing on the work of Charles S. Peirce, he demonstrates how the defining value forms-migrant work capacity, services, and remittances-act as signs, building a moral world by communicating their exchangeability while hiding the violence and exploitation on which this story rests. Theoretically sophisticated, ethnographically rich, and compellingly written, American Value offers critical insights into practices that are increasingly common throughout the world.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Characters

Preface

Prologue

Part I

Part II

Part III

Finale

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9781283855761

1283855763

9780226922775

0226922774

OCLC:

822214313