Date of Award
5-2013
Major
Anthropology
Faculty Advisor
Barrios, Roberto E.
Abstract
Business practices in urban centers have garnered much of the research and interest by anthropologists, sociologists, and economists with very little focus on small business communities in rural areas. In this paper I explored the social connections and relationships between business owners in the region of Southern Illinois and their communities and the ways in which they integrate their public and private lives. To do this, I interviewed members of the formal, semi-formal, informal, and online business communities in Carbondale, Illinois. For my analysis, I used a variety of sources including Claudia Strauss' Partly Fragmented, Partly Integrated: An Anthropological Examination of "Postmodern Fragmented Subjects", Josiane Boutets' Language Workers: Emblematic Figure of Late Capitalism, and Sayre Schatzs' Socializing Adaptation: A Perspective on World Capitalism. I also explored the possibilities of further research in the city of Carbondale centered on business practices.