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Microbusiness, household and class dynamics: the embedding of minority ethnic commerce

Sanghera, Balihar (2002) Microbusiness, household and class dynamics: the embedding of minority ethnic commerce. Sociological Review, 50 (2). pp. 241-257. ISSN 0038-0261. (doi:10.1111/1467-954X.00365) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:348)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00365

Abstract

Microbusinesses are embedded in wider social processes, and it is the nature of this social embeddedness that is the principal focus of the article. In particular,‘domestic embedding’ of petty commerce is crucial, and involves a mixture of competition, domination, negotiation, and custom (Wheelock and Mariussen, 1997). Furthermore, as a socio-economic group, petty traders and producers occupy an ambivalent position in the class structure, as they are vulnerable both to upward and downward social mobility. While the petty capital class has the advantage of possessing property assets, many members lack significant symbolic and cultural assets. Nonetheless, property assets offer the most robust bases for class formation (Savage et al., 1992). In addition, the embedding of petty commerce can be both ‘identity-sensitive’ and ‘identity-neutral’(Sayer, 1995; 2000; Fraser, 1995). Extra-ethnic factors are significant in this process.

The research uses formal interviews and ‘quasi-ethnographic’ methodology to explore the different contexts in which restaurateurs and market traders operated in Birmingham, UK. The article draws critically on several literatures on industrial organisation, economic sociology, family businesses and minority ethnic businesses. One aim is to give the rather indifferent concept of ‘embedding’ substantive content, and in this way to make an empirically informed contribution to ‘new economic sociology’.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/1467-954X.00365
Uncontrolled keywords: small business, ethnicity, entrepreneurs, minority workers, sociology microbusiness
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Samantha Osborne
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2007 18:11 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/348 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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