Fabricating Transnational Capitalism

“Across the reach of global capitalism, Italian managers and Chinese entrepreneurs cast sticky webs of desire toward each other. And yet, as they negotiate the value of their respective labors, a quite different history of assessment and translation is brought into play for each. Fabricating Transnational Capitalism unpacks what global capital means on the ground. There are surprises: investment is kinship; private is state-run. For the ethnographic study of political economy, the book will become a classic.” - Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, author of The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

“Lisa Rofel and Sylvia J. Yanagisako's innovative collaboration offers significant insights into the dynamics of global capitalism in the contemporary moment. Nuanced, fluidly argued, and written with considerable verve, Fabricating Transnational Capitalism is not just a brilliant work by two scholars at the cutting-edge of their fields; it envisions and models what collaborative ethnography can become and might achieve.” - Karen Ho, author of Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street

"Grounded in an innovative, collaborative multi-sited ethnography, this book makes a major contribution to existing literature by capturing the nature and power dynamics of transnational capitalism. . . . [Fabricating Transnational Capitalism] will be welcomed by a wide array of scholars interested in transnational capitalism, labor, kinship, fashion, China, Italy, and beyond." - Tiantian Zheng, H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews

"This dense and fascinating book proves the relevance of the ethnographic method to analyses of the changing dynamics of transnational capitalism in recent decades." - Véronique Pouillard, Business History Review

"This book breaths fresh air into the study of global and transnational capitalism. It represents a fine example of collaborative research and an innovative approach to multi-sited ethnography. It offers important insights into how transnational capitalism happens on the ground. This is a must-read for students and scholars of anthropological political economy." - Jianhua Zhao, Asian Anthropology

"[This] book is much deeper and more nuanced than most comparative or multi-sited studies. The analysis is lucid, innovative, and book reviews thought provoking. The insights are vividly illustrated by interview materials that are carefully qualified and corroborated. This is book that should and will be widely read and discussed in years to come in the fields of globalization, migration, labor, economic sociology and anthropology." - Biao Xiang, Journal of Chinese Overseas

"This book skilfully explains the dynamic nature of global capitalism and illustrates how the Chinese-Italian transnational market and resource exchanges have expanded industrial capacity. . . . I would recommend this book to a broad readership interested in these topics as well as in Chinese studies, area studies, and kinship." - Shih-Ying Lin, China Information

"Fabricating Transnational Capitalism is remarkable not only for its convincing argument but also for its form: the book is a collaborative ethnography about capitalist transnational collaborations." - Gerda Kuiper, Anthropology Book Forum

“Lisa Rofel and Sylvia Yanagisako have provided a creative ethnography of Italian-Chinese ventures in the global fashion industry, making a unique contribution, both conceptually and methodologically.”

"[Rofel and Yanagisako] give detailed and nuanced insights into the processes of transnational capitalism, including privatization, the negotiation of the value of labor, and kinship." - Hazel Clark, Journal of Asian Studies

“Drawing on the legacy of feminist critiques of public–private spheres, the authors expose how assumptions about such divisions in capitalism play out in globalized contexts. As such, they disrupt ‘an ideal type model’ and bring an understanding of capitalism as a diverse set of arrangements even in highly transnational contexts. Their comparison illuminates the role of states and private entities in structuring enterprises and reveals dynamics that shape value and accumulation as well as kinship and inequality…. The book holds particular value for scholars in globalization studies, political economy, economic sociology, and anthropology, as well as business and organization studies.” - Elizabeth L. Krause, American Anthropologist

"Fabricating Transnational Capitalism's key contributions are substantive, theoretical and methodological.… The book is a refreshingly unique approach to anthropological studies of contemporary transnationalism.… It would be an excellent text to teach in courses in anthropology, geography, gender, women and sexuality studies, and political economy."  - Priti Ramamurthy, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology