| Subject: Re: A new book on the Gujarati diaspora |
Author:
Ramnik Shah
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Sat, April 30 2011, 17:22:38-4
In reply to:
Ramnik Shah
's message, "A new book on the Gujarati diaspora" on Wed, April 20 2011, 11:52:12-4
PS> Apropos my earlier message, in fairness I should clarify that the `business is in our blood` claim by Gujaratis cannot be taken as a literal or biological truth, and that the essence of Poros`s argument is that it is really a social phenomenon to be found among Gujarati communal networks. As such networks have a tendency to extend, both linearly and laterally, that probably explains the appropriation of the concept as an inherited trait, fuelled no doubt by a long mercantile tradition. An important qualification to this however, according to Poros, is that these networks preserve and perpetuate opportunities only for the `in-groups`, and so those who are outside of them are thereby excluded. As this seems to conform to popular perception, it is something that we can all agree on!
>I have just reviewed "Modern Migrations: Gujarati
>Indian Networks in New York & London" by Maritsa V
>Poros - ISBN 978-0-8047-7223-5 (pbk)(Standford
>University Press, 2011)- in the Journal of Immigration
>Asylum and Nationality Law (IANL, Vol 25, No. 1, 2011)
>which members may find worth reading. Maritsa Poros is
>Assistant Professor of Sociology at the City College
>of New York.
>
>As the title of the book indicates, her study focuses
>on the phenomenon of the highly urbanised and
>successful Gujarati migrant networks of the West`s two
>largest metropolitan conurbations. She does however,
>as I point out in my review, dismiss "as a common
>cultural myth the claim by Gujaratis that business is
>in their blood", notwithstanding a great deal of the
>contrary "evidence buried in her own extensive
>bibliographical sources"! Anyway, judge for
>yourselves.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 