Introduction to the special issue

After Trust

Bibliographic Data

ID4263159
AuthorsМагнус Марсден (University of Sussex, corresponding author), Magnus Marsden (University of Sussex Brighton UK), Paul Anderson (0000-0002-8156-5542, University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume20
Issue4
Pages697-707
Publication date2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Networks (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-2266 • E-ISSN: 1471-0374
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/glob.12270
OpenAlexW3011007050
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited30

Trust' has long been seen as critical to the success and durability of trading networks, and conceptualized as a positive moral sentiment that is embedded in shared kinship, ethnicity or friendship, or in shared frameworks of morality. Other recent studies of business communities suggest that the ability to work in settings characterized by pervasive mistrust is a key factor in the development of commercial acumen and a determinant of success. Here, the authors argue that a focus on trust and mistrust, and an underlying concern with ethics and morality, can obscure equally critical factors that inform the durability of trading networks. They offer ethnographic accounts of different inter-Asian trading networks active in the city of Yiwu, which is one of China's most dynamic and diverse 'international trade cities'. Yiwu is home to the largest wholesale market of small commodities in the world, and attracts traders and merchants from across the planet; more than 12,000 foreign traders are also resident in the city. The authors of the articles presented here analyse the durability of these networks in relation to broader geopolitical processes and contexts. They argue that success often depends on the ability to negotiate geopolitical shifts and the fault lines of political identity. They trace traders' efforts to create institutions that allow them to withstand geopolitical transformations. They also document the ability of trading networks to operate flexibly across different social fields, showing that resilience often depends on the ability to navigate and profit from shifting relations between economic, political and familial domains

Ethnography · Friendship · Geopolitics · Kinship · Moral economy · Morality · Negotiation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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