Full Description
This lively and engaging ethnography, written and designed with students in mind, uses the experiences and perspectives of a set of long-time market vendors in San Lorenzo, a neighborhood in the historic center of Florence, Italy, to explore how cultural identities are formed in periods of profound economic and social change.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. San Lorenzo Neighborhood and Its Globalized Market
A Marketplace in Transition
Migrations and Complications
Civic Administration and Politics in San Lorenzo
Fieldwork as an Apprentice Vendor
Marketplace Performance in the Theater of Sales
Some Dilemmas of Fiorentinità
2. A Mercantile Neighborhood across Time
A City of Merchants
San Lorenzo in Medieval and Medicean Times
Old, New, and Newer Markets
From Traveling to Stationary Peddlers
Diversity in the Most Cosmopolitan Part of the City
Choosing the Right Vendor
Identity and Heritage in a World Heritage Site
3. Lives and Livelihoods on Silver Street
How Some Vendors Got Their Start
Merchants and Their Merchandise
Finding Work in San Lorenzo
Competition in Close Quarters
The Best Work
Customer Relations
Making Cents in San Lorenzo
4. Into the Heart of Florence
Long-Term Vendors and Newcomers
Fixed Merchants and Infringers
Unlicensed Vending in the Marketplace
Talking to the Neighbors
5. Saving San Lorenzo
A Neighborhood Association
The Saint Orsola Project and the Search for "Monna Lisa"
Tsunami on the Market Stands
Fiorentinità and Its Discontents
6. Fiorentinità in a Post-Florentine Market
Bibliography
Index
