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Dealing with insecurity: Informal business relations and risk governance among food wholesalers in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Keck Markus

    (Bonn)

  • Bohle Hans-Georg

    (Bonn)

  • Zingel Wolfgang-Peter

    (Heidelberg)

Abstract

The article investigates underlying social mechanisms that contribute to the remarkable resilience of Dhaka’s food system with a special focus on wholesalers and their informal business networks. A relational approach to the subject matter is elaborated that understands informality as a specific governance mode of business relations that is coined by horizontal power relations, and by the implicit codification, endogenous imposition, and personalized implementation of procedural rules. Empirical evidence is presented from recent fieldwork with rice and fish wholesalers that suggests that informality, in the form of trustworthy relations and social capital, has the potential to foster the traders’ adaptive capacities and thus not only their individual business performance, but also the overall robustness of the urban food system.

Suggested Citation

  • Keck Markus & Bohle Hans-Georg & Zingel Wolfgang-Peter, 2012. "Dealing with insecurity: Informal business relations and risk governance among food wholesalers in Dhaka, Bangladesh," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 56(1-2), pages 43-57, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:zfwige:v:56:y:2012:i:1-2:p:43-57:n:4
    DOI: 10.1515/zfw.2012.0004
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2007. "Bangladesh - Dhaka : Improving Living Conditions for the Urban Poor," World Bank Publications - Reports 7686, The World Bank Group.
    2. Peter Li, 2007. "Social tie, social capital, and social behavior: Toward an integrative model of informal exchange," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 227-246, June.
    3. Adelstein, Richard, 2010. "Firms as social actors," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 329-349, September.
    4. Douglass C. North, 2005. "Introduction to Understanding the Process of Economic Change," Introductory Chapters, in: Understanding the Process of Economic Change, Princeton University Press.
    5. Richard Adelstein, 2010. "Firms as Social Actors," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2013-003, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
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