University of Sussex
Browse
glob.12270.pdf (257.23 kB)

Introduction to the special issue: after trust

Download (257.23 kB)
Version 2 2023-06-07, 08:43
Version 1 2023-06-07, 06:48
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 08:43 authored by Magnus MarsdenMagnus Marsden, Paul Anderson
“Trust” has long been seen as critical to the success and durability of trading networks, and conceptualised as a positive moral sentiment that is embedded in shared kinship, ethnicity or friendship, or in shared frameworks of morality. Other recent studies of business communities suggest that the ability to work in settings characterised by pervasive mistrust is a key factor in the development of commercial acumen and determining success. This Special Issue argues that the focus on trust and mistrust, and the underlying concern with ethics and morality, obscure equally critical aspects that inform the durability of trading networks. It offers ethnographic accounts of different inter-Asian trading networks active in the city of Yiwu. One of China’s most dynamic and diverse ‘international trade cities’, Yiwu is home to the largest wholesale market of small commodities in the world, and attracts traders and merchants from across the planet; over 12,000 foreign traders are also resident in the city. The collected articles analyse the durability of these networks in relation to broader geopolitical processes and contexts, arguing that success often depends on the ability to negotiate geopolitical shifts and the faultlines of political identity. The articles trace traders’ efforts to create institutions that allow them to withstand geopolitical transformations. They also document the ability of trading networks to operate flexibly across different social fields, showing that resilience often depends on the ability to navigate and profit from shifting relations between economic, political and familial domains.

Funding

Trust, Global Traders and Cheap Commodities in a Chinese International City (TRODITIES); G1723; EUROPEAN UNION; 669132

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Global Networks

ISSN

1470-2266

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

4

Volume

20

Page range

697-707

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Asia Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-10-25

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2020-07-02

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-10-24

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC