Currencies of Imagination: Channeling Money and Chasing Mobility in Vietnam

Author:   Ivan V. Small
Publisher:   Cornell University Press
ISBN:  

9781501716874


Pages:   216
Publication Date:   15 January 2019
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Currencies of Imagination: Channeling Money and Chasing Mobility in Vietnam


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Overview

In Vietnam, international remittances from the Vietnamese diaspora are quantitatively significant and contribute important economic inputs. Yet beyond capital transfer, these diasporic remittance economies offer insight into an unfolding transformation of Vietnamese society through the extension of imaginations and ontological possibilities that accompany them. Currencies of Imagination examines the complex role of remittances as money and as gifts that flow across, and mediate between, transnational kinship networks dispersed by exile and migration. Long distance international gift exchanges and channels in a neoliberal political economy juxtapose the increasing cross-border mobility of remittance financial flows against the relative confines of state bounded bodies. In this contradiction Ivan V. Small reveals a creative space for emergent imaginaries that disrupt local structures and scales of desire, labor and expectation. Furthermore, the particular characteristics of remittance channels and mediums in a global economy, including transnational mobility and exchangeable value, affect and reflect the relations, aspirations, and orientations of the exchange participants. Small traces a genealogy of how this phenomenon has shifted through changing remittance forms and transfer infrastructures, from material and black market to formal bank and money services. Transformations in the affective and institutional relations among givers, receivers, and remittance facilitators accompany each of these shifts, illustrating that the socio-cultural work of remittances extends far beyond the formal economic realm they are usually consigned to.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ivan V. Small
Publisher:   Cornell University Press
Imprint:   Cornell University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.907kg
ISBN:  

9781501716874


ISBN 10:   1501716875
Pages:   216
Publication Date:   15 January 2019
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

"List of Illustrations Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction: Money, Gifts, and Flows 1. The ""Dangerous"" Gift 2. Sà i Gò n, Overlaid by H Chí Minh: Capitalist Desires and Deferrals 3. Coastal Flows and Hypothetical Horizons 4. The Beautiful, Tired Country 5. Crossing the Bridge... Home? Conclusion: Not Yet Enough: Mobility and Its Malcontents Afterword Notes Bibliography Index"

Reviews

Ivan Small's book is a very exciting contribution to a topic of major significance in Vietnam, that of remittances. Small shows that the way in which money is sent back to Vietnam from California transforms social interactions as well as the social significance of money. -- Ken MacLean, Clark University, and author of <I>The Government of Mistrust</I> Currencies of Imagination builds from multi-sited fieldwork in Vietnam and the US and paints a vivid picture of the social worlds influenced by transnational remittances. Ivan Small shows that remittances are a way of sending gratitude, of establishing and maintaining social bonds. Money is infused with morality and nostalgia, and the technologies of sending and receiving money navigate state regulations and social demands. -- Erik Harms, Yale University, and author of <I>Luxury and Rubble</I> In this absorbing and vivid account of Vietnamese remittance economies, Ivan Small demonstrates the ongoing relevance of attention to the circulation of things as profoundly social and imaginative projects. -- Ann Marie Leshkowich, College of the Holy Cross, and author of <I>Essential Trade</I>


Ivan Small's book is a very exciting contribution to a topic of major significance in Vietnam, that of remittances. Small shows that the way in which money is sent back to Vietnam from California transforms social interactions as well as the social significance of money. -- Ken MacLean, Associate Professor of International Development and Social Change, Clark University, and author of <I>The Government of Mistrust</I> Currencies of Imagination builds from multi-sited fieldwork in Vietnam and the US and paints a vivid picture of the social worlds influenced by transnational remittances. Ivan Small shows that remittances are a way of sending gratitude, of establishing and maintaining social bonds. Money is infused with morality and nostalgia, and the technologies of sending and receiving money navigate state regulations and social demands. -- Erik Harms, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Yale University, and author of <I>Luxury and Rubble</I> In this absorbing and vivid account of Vietnamese remittance economies, Ivan Small demonstrates the ongoing relevance of attention to the circulation of things as profoundly social and imaginative projects. -- Ann Marie Leshkowich, Professor of Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross, and author of <I>Essential Trade: Vietnamese Women in a Changing Marketplace</I>


Author Information

Ivan V. Small is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Houston. He is co-editor of Money at the Margins.

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