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History General

Keeping Heads Above Water

Salvadorean Refugees in Costa Rica

by (author) Tanya Basok

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Mar 1993
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773509771
    Publish Date
    Mar 1993
    List Price
    $125.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773563780
    Publish Date
    Mar 1993
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

Basok rejects the theoretical models traditionally used in development studies for analysing the non-capitalist forms of production in the capitalist economy, arguing that these theoretical models place too much emphasis on external aspects of production. Instead, she proposes that internal aspects such as technology, labour relations, and organization of production need to be examined to allow an understanding of how informal petty commodity producers survive competition with capitalist enterprises.

In her research with members of small urban enterprises -- including shoemakers, bakeries, carpentry shops, street vendors, seamstresses and tailors, and market and handicraft shops -- she demonstrates that these enterprises can be viable when their production is organized in such a way that they become resistant to competition with the capitalist sector.

About the author

Soc/Anth, Windsor University

Tanya Basok's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Keeping Heads Above Water promises to serve as a useful guide to others charged with evaluating assistance programs for refugees, internally displaced, and other marginal populations ... I am impressed with Basok's honest, 'on the ground' attempts to come up with realistic indicators and measures of the economic viability of small, urban enterprises." Patricia Pessar, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
"Basok's observations on the situation of Salvadorean refugees in Costa Rica are pertinent and accurate ... She has done an excellent job." Josephine Smart, Department of Anthropology, University of Calgary.