par Rosenfeld, Martin
Référence Superdiversity: Theory, Method and Practice (1: 23-25 / 06 / 2014: Birmingham, Angleterre)
Publication Non publié, 2014-06-23
Communication à un colloque
Résumé : The process of economic globalization created new kind of business networks. The economic strength of those trade chains lies in the ability to connect specific products from global North with demand from global South. Often constructed from below by small entrepreneurs, a specific case of those networks are the businesses of second-hand goods. I studied more specifically the Euro-African second-hand car business.My PhD is built on the idea that in order to meet the people, I have to follow the cars. This methodological principle led me to develop a multi-sited ethnography. Starting from the huge second-hand car markets of Brussels, I followed the cars In Antwerp – the biggest European harbor for the exportation of second-hand cars – and Cotonou, Benin, were I completed 10 month of fieldwork. This business activity raises numerous questions regarding migration, transnational practices, globalization from below and entrepreneurship. Especially when focusing on the profile of second-hand cars importers. While Beninese importers travel back and forth from Cotonou to Brussels in order to buy their second-hand cars by themselves, Lebanese importers can count on their Diaspora to send them those cars directly in Cotonou. This raises interesting questions regarding trust and ethnicity. More than this, analyzing the migratory practices of those second-hand cars importers led me to combine theoretically the French literature on trans-borders entrepreneurs with the Anglo-Saxon literature on business diaspora and transnationalism.