Trading in Uncertainty

Horat, Esther

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-55648-2_3

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…However, without initial trust and social capital with his initial customers, he would not have been able to tap into these kinship circles of Chines traders. In effect, these kinship ties are extended to Preston, but his membership in the group has a different level of obligations and rewards than other members (Carsten 2000;Horat 2017). There is an implicit trust that both parties engaging in a business agreement must place in each other; without trust, business transactions would be completely imbedded in tension and unease and eventually prove untenable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Ties-Nigerian Entrepreneurs and Chinese Business Associates

Onomake-McShane¹

2019

jba

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Africa-China relationships consists of various interactions between government officials, to large corporations, and individuals. This article examines the emerging relationship between Africa and China through the ethnography of a Nigerian entrepreneur who seeks to expand his business by selling to Chinese clients. Entrepreneurship is lauded in Nigerian society. China's increasing presence in the country is often presented as a positive economic opportunity for Nigerians, including entrepreneurs. This research highlights the complex nature of business relationships between Nigerian entrepreneurs and Chinese counterparts. To build trust and business ties, the entrepreneur highlighted manages his brand via social media, utilizes social capital, and taps into relatedness and kinship within Chinese business circles.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Ties-Nigerian Entrepreneurs and Chinese Business Associates

Onomake-McShane¹

2019

jba

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“…Trust implies having confidence in abstract systems and institutions such as in contracts or authorities for food regulation. Where such regulations or the monitoring thereof are missing, social capital has become an important resource to draw on (Horat, 2017;Koh, 2006). Gerber et al (2014) show how social capital helps to overcome institutional gaps in agricultural wholesale commodity chains in Northern Vietnam.…”

Section: Agricultural Commodity Chains and Food Safety In Urban Vietnammentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The paper concludes that the commodity of fresh vegetables is being taken out of its commodity sphere, signifying the beginning of a process of singularization (Kopytoff, 1988). The paper's arguments follow from literature on the role of trust in economic relationships (Evers, 1995;Figuié et al, 2019;Gerber et al, 2014;Horat, 2017) and on the production of value (Graeber, 2001;Kockelman, 2012;Kopytoff, 1988). Second, the paper follows Korff's (2018) definition of the city as an innovative milieu, in which solutions can be found.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grow at home, buy local: (De)commodifying 'rural' vegetables and herbs

Kurfürst¹

2020

Global Studies

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In Vietnam, people are increasingly concerned about the absence of food standards and the danger this poses to their families' health. In Hanoi, urbanites are in search of clean and safe vegetables. Using results from fieldwork in Hanoi, this paper presents three strategies urbanites use to ensure food safety in the fresh produce they eat. They rely on trust-based strategies, when maintaining their daily practice of buying from local vendors or receiving their fresh food supply from relatives and friends residing in the countryside. In addition, urbanites are increasingly cultivating herbs and vegetables at home in roof top gardens or on fallow urban land. From the analysis of these strategies two main arguments are developed: First, by embedding the supply with fresh produce in social relationships and growing food at home urbanites actively shorten agricultural wholesale commodity chains. The value of vegetables and herbs in urban Vietnam is no longer solely determined by the monetary exchange value, but is assigned with a social exchange value. Accordingly, the paper argues that the commodity of fresh vegetables is being taken out of its commodity sphere, thus signifying the beginning of a process of singularization (Kopytoff, 1988). Second, by cultivating fresh produce in the city urbanites creatively employ the urban built environment and thence the materiality and materials that the city has to offer. The paper concludes that this identifies an affirmation of urban life and urbanites' "social creativity", their willingness to improve their living (Korff, 1991: 15), by dealing with the challenges and contingencies of the city.

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“…Trust implies having confidence in abstract systems and institutions such as in contracts or authorities for food regulation. Where such regulations or the monitoring thereof are missing, social capital has become an important resource to draw on (Horat, 2017;. Gerber et al (2014) show how social capital helps to overcome institutional gaps in agricultural wholesale commodity chains in Northern Vietnam.…”

Section: Agricultural Commodity Chains and Food Safety In Urban Vietnammentioning

confidence: 99%

Southeast Asian Transformations

2020

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Constructing and reconstructing life worlds of NusantaraPutting on our helmets and, if it is pouring with rain, tent-like gold and silver ponchos, we start our two-wheeler and drive to the end of our crisply paved alley to face the bungalow of our landlord and landlady across the street. They bought our townhouse to rent it out, and keep an eye on us, their tenants, on their regular walks to and from the mosque. Ibu Mar is a retired secretary, who used to work for the accounting department of a mining company. Her husband is still employed and has a fly-in-fly-out job as a technician at an open-cast lignite mine in Kalimantan. Two of their sons are already settled in Jakarta, while their youngest son still lives with them at home. Like women in the kampong, and my neighbour Nani, our industrious landlady Mar has her own business, which she is eager to expand, selling premium ice-cream of a Singaporean brand on the door step to passing school children (and exhausted working mums). Using my down payment of the whole year's rent for the house as is customary, busy construction work started at their house soon after we moved in. Walls are being torn down, doors moved, and the house remodelled to accommodate both the necessary car and the expanding ice-cream business (although while we were there we always went to the back door to get our cold lump of sweetened fat). During our stay, more of our rent money and their time were invested in marrying off the last son, and laying on a splendid reception attended by more than 1000 guests.Facing our landlord's house, we may either turn left or right. If we turn right, we pass bungalows and small residential estates. The street is lined with trees and full of animals: hens looking after their chicks, beautiful cocks showing off, cats moving stealthily about and occasionally a pure bred dog. Javanese ladies in informal batik dresses with their hair uncovered feed the animals. Alongside well-kept gardens and fenced verandas, some plots lie fallow, covered with dense undergrowth and wild banana trees. Jacob calls these semi-wild areas 'chicken forests' as these animals can be seen dashing in and out as we pass by, slowed down by the 'sleeping policemen' that cross the street. Chicken are an important part of the local diet and kept for consumption of their flesh, with chicken feet considered a special delicacy. Cocks are cherished as pets to be admired or as fighting cocks. The fowl run in and out between the well-kept town houses and the neighbouring chicken forest. These patches of semi-wild greenery help maintain a pocket-sized social-ecological system that is a remnant of home gardens in rural areas in times gone by. In addition to the poultry, young men like to keep racing pigeons or songbirds, which are fed and catered for with utmost attention and presented at shows and races at weekends. The young men can often be seen on motor scooters with the birds in cloth-covered birdcages worn like rucksacks, a sight that encapsulates the love

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Trading in Uncertainty

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

Emerging Ties-Nigerian Entrepreneurs and Chinese Business Associates

Emerging Ties-Nigerian Entrepreneurs and Chinese Business Associates

Grow at home, buy local: (De)commodifying 'rural' vegetables and herbs

Southeast Asian Transformations

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