Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism

This article scrutinizes three different, and possible, ways to depict traders in contemporary Aleppo. They can be seen as sharing a distinct culture, as representatives of the petite bourgeoisie, or as examples of entrepreneurs. While all these approaches tell us something about the Aleppo traders,...

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Main Author: Annika Rabo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université de Provence 2006-12-01
Series:Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/3013
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author Annika Rabo
author_facet Annika Rabo
author_sort Annika Rabo
collection DOAJ
description This article scrutinizes three different, and possible, ways to depict traders in contemporary Aleppo. They can be seen as sharing a distinct culture, as representatives of the petite bourgeoisie, or as examples of entrepreneurs. While all these approaches tell us something about the Aleppo traders, these approaches have great limitations, not least since the latter two – each in its own way – are utility-oriented. It is, I will rather argue, important to analyze Aleppo traders as affective, parochial and innovative, at the same time. Although Aleppo traders find themselves on the margins of global capitalism, they can, in fact, be studied in order to understand salient features of the contemporary world. We have a new affective economy where personalities, emotions and sensibilities are put on the market. The article is based on material collected during social anthropological fieldwork in Aleppo between 1997 and 2003, but mainly carried out in 1998-1999.
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spelling doaj-art-7cd11def7f294623bcdcea641f3bd1c52025-08-20T02:27:29ZengUniversité de ProvenceRevue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée0997-13272105-22712006-12-0111510.4000/remmm.3013Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalismAnnika RaboThis article scrutinizes three different, and possible, ways to depict traders in contemporary Aleppo. They can be seen as sharing a distinct culture, as representatives of the petite bourgeoisie, or as examples of entrepreneurs. While all these approaches tell us something about the Aleppo traders, these approaches have great limitations, not least since the latter two – each in its own way – are utility-oriented. It is, I will rather argue, important to analyze Aleppo traders as affective, parochial and innovative, at the same time. Although Aleppo traders find themselves on the margins of global capitalism, they can, in fact, be studied in order to understand salient features of the contemporary world. We have a new affective economy where personalities, emotions and sensibilities are put on the market. The article is based on material collected during social anthropological fieldwork in Aleppo between 1997 and 2003, but mainly carried out in 1998-1999.https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/3013
spellingShingle Annika Rabo
Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism
Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
title Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism
title_full Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism
title_fullStr Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism
title_full_unstemmed Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism
title_short Affective, parochial or innovative? Aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism
title_sort affective parochial or innovative aleppo traders on the margin of global capitalism
url https://journals.openedition.org/remmm/3013
work_keys_str_mv AT annikarabo affectiveparochialorinnovativealeppotradersonthemarginofglobalcapitalism