Making It at Any Cost

MatÍas Dewey is a senior researcher in sociology at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He was a visiting scholar at the Extra-Legal Governance Institute at the University of Oxford, at MaxPo in Paris, and most recently at the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of El orden clandestino, a Spanish-language book on illegal markets in Argentina, and a co-editor of The Architecture of Illegal Markets: Towards an Economic Sociology of Illegality in the Economy. His articles have appeared in Socio-Economic Review, Latin American Research Review, Journal of Latin American Studies, and Current Sociology.

[Making It at Any Cost] is a sophisticated piece of ethnographic work, especially relevant for academic research focused on the study of urban economic structures in Latin American cities. Throughout the book, the well-structured analytical sequence and narrative followed by the author is captivating and manages to engage the reader in the everyday living of the inhabitants of La Salada. (European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies) [Dewey] demonstrates a clear attachment to both the location and his subjects and provides a rich description of their lives and their struggles...One of the core values of ethnographic research is an immersive and detailed depiction of a setting, and Dewey meets this objective. (American Journal of Sociology) Making It at Any Cost is a fantastic ethnographic work that enters into great detail without boring the reader, and without failing to acknowledge the importance of the broader spatial and historical context...Making It at Any Cost is the best of all existing books on La Salada. Colleagues working on how social relations are governed in illegal marketplaces and on sweatshop economies producing fast fashion will most probably be left with pages of questions, answers, and doubts that will modify their research agendas. (Economic Sociology) [Making It at Any Cost] is an important contribution to the role local economic practices play in organizing commitments, subjectivities, and personal trajectories, and marries European and US economic sociology with Latin American studies of urban and labor informality, aiming to expand some of its lessons beyond the site-specific characteristics of La Salada...The book calls our attention to the creativity, and resilience of subaltern agents in the global economy...This is an excellent book that uses creatively the case of La Salada to elegantly fill gaps in the US and European economic sociology scholarship, expending current understandings of morality in illegal and contested markets. As such, it would be a great addition to courses on informal markets, studies of morality, global chains, and Latin American urban studies. (Social Forces) Making It at Any Cost provides a nuanced account of a counterfeit market that reveals itself to be as rational, hardworking, and creative as any of its 'legal' counterparts in the global supply chain. In doing so, the book shows how actors themselves create order and sustained relationships precisely where the state’s presence is most attenuated and where distrust predominates...Future scholars will do well to return to this book. (Latin American Politics and Society)

• MapsThe Structure of La Salada MarketplaceList of La Salada CharactersAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Aspirations amid DistrustPart I: History, Place, and Politics Chapter 1. The Garment Market and the MarketplaceChapter 2. Governing La SaladaChapter 3. With God and the DevilPart II: Prisoners of Aspirations Chapter 4. All I Want Is a SweatshopChapter 5. The Garment Entrepreneur at La SaladaChapter 6. Dynamics of AspirationsPart III: Aspirations in Action Chapter 7. Narratives of Sacrifice and AutonomyChapter 8. Taste, Credit, and BulletsChapter 9. Squatters, Cart-Pullers, and DemolitionConclusionEpilogueMethodological AppendixNotesWorks CitedIndex