191211 - Profits from a Sweatshop-Based Urban Economy: Informal Pacts and the Production of Social Order

Seminar Cities are back in town

Sciences Po, Room Sciences Po, LIEPP conference room, 254, boulevard Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Latin America’s largest marketplace for clothing produced in sweatshops located in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, the presentation will dissect the relationships between this informal and illegal economy and government authorities at different levels. Matias Dewey will first describe the workings of the marketplace, trace its historical roots, and characterize the main actors involved. Second, by focusing on law
(non-) enforcement mechanisms, it will be argued that this type of urban economies might play an important role in the production of political, social and economic order. More specifically, Matias Dewey develops an understanding of the illegal economies-government relationship in terms of an informal pact or agreement, which is based in a constant manipulation of law enforcement mechanisms. Overall, the presentation is an invitation to reflect upon the ways states govern outlawed economies.

Speaker: Matias Dewey, Senior Researcher, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies,

Cologne

Matias Dewey’s research is centered on economic sociology, illegal markets, social theory and qualitative research. Together with Jens Beckert, he edited The Architecture of Illegal Markets: Towards an Economic Sociology of Illegality in the Economy (Oxford University Press, 2017). His articles appear in
Socio-Economic Review, Current Sociology, Latin American Research Review, Journal of Latin American Studies. 

Discussant: Laurent Fourchard, Sciences Po, CERI 

 Contact: citiesarebackintown@sciencespo.fr

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