Traders and Tinkers: Bazaars in the Global Economy Available to Purchase

This wonderful study is an examination of street vendors in India's bazaars, where much of the subcontinent's market activity takes place. On the one hand, it is a particularly rich empirical study of three Delhi marketplaces in which tradespeople on the street specialize in selling electronic games and providing technical services to customers. Rather than cater to the rich, who more typically habituate shopping malls and can afford the newest goods in standardized form, traders in these markets sell used items, sometimes illegally, to the “popular classes” and continuously “tinker” with the products to make them work for their customers. The author bases her study on extensive ethnographic research, having observed vendors in day-to-day interactions over a decade, gaining their confidence and acquiring insight into closely guarded commercial and cultural practices. On the other hand, the book offers an ambitious theoretical discussion of the role of bazaars in South Asia,...