– disjointed in its impact (and he does show persuasively that recession was both partial and by no meansgeneralized)? It is a shame that the author does not venture some suggestions at this macro-level of analysis.

To sum up, Decker argues effectively against the somewhat minimalist view of the late ancienteconomy, challenging implicitly also the views of historians such as Hendy (1985) and Wickham on theoverwhelming dominance of the state’s fiscal needs in shaping patterns of trade and production. He makesa forceful argument for the flourishing nature of the regional economies of the diocese of Oriens,showing both how different networks of exchange intersected and became interdependent and the levelsat which they operated autonomously. He makes excellent use of the archaeological and documentarysources, and he is rightly reluctant to over-generalize where the sources do not warrant it. In short,whatever other topics this reviewer would like to have seen in the general discussion, and whateverdifficulties the author had to contend with in terms of gaps in the data, this is an extremely importantand very valuable discussion of the foundations of the late ancient economy in some of the mostimportant eastern provinces of the late Roman empire, and in terms of its exposition on agriculturaltechnique. On these aspects, it will remain an important work of reference for some time to come.

REFERENCES

Banaji, J., 2001. Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, Labour and Aristocratic Dominance. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

Hendy, M.F., 1985. Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy, 500–1450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Horden, P. and N. Purcell, 2000. The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford: Blackwell.McCormick, M., 2001. Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, ad 300–900. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.Sarris, P., 2006. Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Sarris, P., ed., 2009. Special Issue: ‘Aristocrats, Peasants and the Transformation of Rural Society, c. 400–800’. Journal

of Agrarian Change, 9 (1): 3–153.Wickham, C., 2005. Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

SARA BERRY

Identity Economics: Social Networks and the Informal Economy in Nigeria, by Kate Meagher. Oxford andIbadan: James Currey and HEBN, 2010. Pp. xiv+208. £16.95 (pb) ISBN 978-1-84701-016-2

Identity Economics traces changes in social networking strategies and practices among small-scale informalproducers in Aba, Nigeria, during the era of structural adjustment, and examines their implications forbusiness practices and performance. Known, along with Nnewi, as a centre of exceptionally dynamicinformal enterprise and market activity, Aba is home to numerous clusters of small-scale manufacturingfirms that make up a central component of Nigeria’s burgeoning informal economy. In this study,Meagher presents in-depth investigations of two such clusters – shoe and garment makers – based onextended periods of participant observation and conversation with over 100 informal producers togetherwith a survey of approximately 250 small firms. Combining detailed analysis of changes brought aboutby market restructuring and economic volatility with reflections on the significance of Meagher’s findingsfor recent debates about the changing role of the informal economy in sub-Saharan Africa in general,Identity Economics provides a valuable case study that adds to the broader literature on social networkingand informal economies in the era of market liberalization.

To highlight transformations during the period of structural adjustment, Meagher begins with a shorthistory of Igbo economic networks from pre-colonial times to the early 1980s. Long known for theirprominence in trading activities throughout Nigeria, ‘the Igbo are one of the few African informalbusiness groups to have made the transition from trade to manufacturing’ (p. 5). Igbo entrepreneurs, large

Sara Berry, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University, 2850 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218,USA. E-mail: sberry@jhu.edu

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and small, have frequently been cited in studies of development in Africa for their ‘cultural strengthsand demonstrated economic capacity’ (p. 6). Despite this history of relative success, however, in the eraof structural adjustment the informal Igbo economy has suffered economic decline, increasing differen-tiation and rising levels of insecurity and vigilantism. Asking whether their recent decline is rooted in‘cultural dysfunction’ or the failures of state policy in the face of market deregulation and intensifiedeconomic pressure, Meagher focuses in particular on the role of social networking in informal producers’efforts to cope with the pressures of market restructuring and the petro-economy.

Her conclusions are not encouraging for advocates of market liberalization as the key to sustainabledevelopment in Africa: ‘Far from encouraging network development, the economic pressures of liberal-ization and globalization have served to erode institutionalized practices and relations of trust withinestablished networks’ (p. 81). Meagher is hardly the first person to have made this argument, but herdetailed examination of changing business practices adds specificity and depth to more general critiquesof the effects of neoliberal policies on African economies, and particularly their ‘informal sectors’. Facedwith overall economic decline, increasingly crowded and volatile markets, and ‘collapsing communalnetworks’, producers in Aba have scrambled to build new, personalized networks with fellow producersto substitute for the declining strength of older, more institutionalized social networks such as kin groupsand hometown associations.

Meagher found very high rates of co-operation within these clusters of producers, who frequentlyborrow tools, share information and exchange small loans with one another. In a context of continuingeconomic instability and pressure, however, networks built among vulnerable producers are themselvesfragile and inefficient, often working to inhibit technical development and increase inequality amongsmall firms, rather than providing a base on which to build institutionalized supports and collectiveefficiencies. Inequalities among firms translate, in turn, into differential patterns of participation in otherkinds of social networks. Participation in hometown associations is expensive, Meagher points out,involving fees, contributions to collective rituals and expensive gifts on special occasions, and participationis increasingly limited to producers who are relatively well off. Poorer producers are more likely to turnto evangelical religious associations, which promote hard work and frugality, and discourage membersfrom continued participation in traditional social networks and rituals considered diabolical by evangelicalChristians and many Muslims. Participation in such organizations, Meagher suggests, allow those withmeagre resources to diversify their networks or, in some cases, find an effective ‘exit’ from obligationsassociated with family and hometown ties.

Sociological rather than historical in emphasis, the book treats the era of structural adjustmentsynchronically, implying rather than demonstrating that neither the transition from military to civilian ruleafter 1999 nor recent adjustments in neoliberal policies have made any difference in the circumstancesfacing informal producers, or the overall trajectory of informal institutional decline. The book is alsofocused entirely on informal enterprises in one Nigerian town. Perhaps in future publications, Meagherwill draw on her own extensive experience in the study of Nigerian political economy to compare recentdevelopments in the informal economy of Aba with those of other Nigerian and African localities, andcomment in greater depth on the paradigm of Igbo exceptionalism that has gained such an establishedplace in the literature on African development.

MARTA INEZ MEDEIROS MARQUES

This Land is Ours Now. Social Mobilization and the Meanings of Land in Brazil, by Wendy Wolford. Durham,NC: Duke University Press, 2010. Pp. xii+275. £68.00 (hb); £16.99 (pb). ISBN: 978-0-8223-45220 and978-0-8223-45398

Wolford’s This Land is Ours Now presents a down-to-earth study of the internal conflicts andcontradictions within the mobilizing process of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). The

Marta Inez Medeiros Marques, Department of Geography, São Paulo University, Av. Lineu Prestes, 338, São Paulo,SP 05508-900, PO Box: 72042, Brazil. E-mail: mimmar@usp.br

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