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“Cut and Sew”: Migration, Crisis, and Belonging in an Italian Fast-Fashion Zone

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Digesting Difference

Part of the book series: Global Diversities ((GLODIV))

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Abstract

This chapter revives De Martino’s (1977) concept of crisis of presence as it places into dialogue three different migratory trajectories that run through the Italian factory-city of Prato. Here, Chinese migrants occupy a formidable niche in the Made in Italy sector and manage more than 5200 family firms, mostly in the fast-fashion sector. The narratives offered by the chapter’s protagonists reveal the heterogeneity of global capitalism and its desiring subjects. Using encounter ethnography, the chapter tracks stories that span local, regional, and transnational histories and reminds how the hegemony of global supply chains has transformed not only local production systems but also social worlds, revealing an unexpected mutuality of belonging through presence of place.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    If the fall of Mussolini’s fascism can be marked with a date of 1944, and the postwar boom with the two decades that followed, current dynamics in globalization can be framed with the unraveling of Europe’s Multi Fibre Agreement in 1994 and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.

  2. 2.

    I follow ethnographic conventions and use of pseudonyms.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to my research participants and friends for sharing their time, stories, and insights with me and my team over the years. This research was made possible in large part due to the National Science Foundation for funding the project, “Chinese Immigration and Family Encounters in Italy” (BCS-1157218), as well as a Wenner-Gren Foundation International Collaborative Research Grant, (ICRG-114), “Tight Knit: Familistic Encounters in a Fast-Fashion District.” I am grateful for the collaboration with Dr. Massimo Bressan, co-applicant on the Wenner-Gren, and support from the Prato-based IRIS research institute. Research assistance from Fangli Xu was particularly essential to data collection. Ying Li, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, also assisted with translation and analysis. Support from the National Humanities Center, where Krause was a fellow during 2013–2014, allowed precious writing time. My thanks are also due to Kelly McKowen and John Borneman for care they brought to curating the volume. In memory of my father, John “Jack” Krause (1931–2020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Elizabeth L. Krause

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  1. Elizabeth L. Krause
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Correspondence to Elizabeth L. Krause .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA

    Kelly McKowen

  2. Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    John Borneman

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Krause, E.L. (2020). “Cut and Sew”: Migration, Crisis, and Belonging in an Italian Fast-Fashion Zone. In: McKowen, K., Borneman, J. (eds) Digesting Difference . Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49598-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49598-5_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-49598-5

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