Winning, then Losing, the Battle with Globalization: Vietnamese Petty Traders in Slovakia

Allan M. Williams and Vladimír Baláž

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2005, vol. 29, issue 3, 533-549

Abstract: This article addresses the remarkable growth of Vietnamese market trading in Central and Eastern Europe, notably Slovakia, in the early 1990s, and its subsequent decline. The literature on ethnic entrepreneurship and cross‐border petty trading provides partial insights into this phenomenon, but fails to explain the levels of concentration of the Vietnamese in market trading, or the rapid changes in this sector. We therefore conceptualize them as being at the nexus of shifting flows of capital, goods and people, and draw on the notion of transnational spaces. L’article aborde le commerce du Vietnam en Europe centrale et de l’Est, notamment en Slovaquie, lequel a connu un remarquable essor au début des années 1990 suivi d’un déclin. Les travaux sur l’esprit d’entreprise ethnique et le petit commerce transfrontalier n’offrent qu’un éclairage partiel de ce phénomène, sans expliquer les niveaux de concentration des Vietnamiens dans le commerce ni les rapides transformations de ce secteur. L’article les conceptualise donc comme le cœur des flux changeants de capitaux, marchandises et populations en s’inspirant de la notion d’espaces transnationaux.

Date: 2005
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