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In February 1999 the tragic New York City police shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed street vendor from Guinea, brought into focus the existence of West African merchants in urban America. In "Money Has No Smell," Paul Stoller offers us a more complete portrait of the complex lives of West African immigrants like Diallo, a portrait based on years of research Stoller conducted on the streets of New York City during the 1990s. As Stoller demonstrates, the stories of these West African traders illustrate and illuminate ongoing debates about globalization, the informal economy, and the changing nature of American communities.
About the author
Paul Stoller is professor of anthropology at West Chester University. He is the author of a number of books, most recently Sensuous Scholarship and Jaguar: A Story of Africans in America, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.
Summary
Blending ethnographic description with social analysis, Stoller shows how West African entrepreneurs have built cohesive and effective multinational trading networks in New York. Their stories illuminate ongoing debates about globalisation.
