This collection of original ethnographically based research from five continents, provides insights into the dynamics of stability and change in our globalizing world. The chapters comprising Live Experiences of Public Consumption give a vivid account of how cultural and economic value intertwine at face-to-face encounters in marketplaces.

JONATHAN SHAPIRO ANJARIA is in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
ANETTE BALDAUF works at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria
KEITH BROWN is in the Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, USA
WINNIFRED BROWN-GLAUDE is a Research Analyst at the Institute for Women's Leadership, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
YULING CHEN serves as a faculty member at National Taiwan College of Physical Education, Taiwan
JENNY HUBERMAN is Assistant Professor, University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA
KIM HUMPHERY is Associate Professor of History and Social Theory, School of Global Studies, Social Science & Planning at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
JAN PHILLIPS is a community and educational activist in Maine and holds a faculty appointment in Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Southern Maine/Lewiston-Auburn College, USA
GIOVANNI SEMI is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture, Department of Social and Political Studies, University of Milan, Italy
JOEL STILLERMAN is Associate Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of Latin American Studies, Grand Valley State University, USA
FREDERICK WHERRY is an Assistant Professor, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA

Notes on Contributors Introduction: Dramaturgies of Value in Market Places; D.T.Cook PART 1: PLAYING IN AND WITH MARKET PLACES The Play of Authenticity in Thai Handicraft Markets; F.F.Wherry Tradition, Adventure, and Pleasure in Santiago, Chile's Informal Markets; J.Stillerman Shopping for People, or Shopping for People ? Deciphering the Object of Consumption among Tourists in Banaras; J.Huberman PART 2: BLURRED BOUNDARIES BETWEEN MARKET AND HOME 'Pleasure from Bitterness': Shopping and Leisure in the Everyday Lives of Taiwanese Mothers; Y.Chen Grocery Shopping and the Accomplishment of Family; J.Phillips PART 3:TRANSGRESSIONS AND INTERSTITIAL SPACES Spreading Like a Dis/ease? Afro-Jamaican Higglers and The Dynamics of Race/Color, Class and Gender; W.Brown-Glaude 'The Flow of Words and the Flow of Value': Illegal Behaviour, Social Identity and Marketplace Experiences in Turin, Italy; G.Semi PART 4: GLOBAL PATRONS, GLOBALIZING MARKETS Beyond Borders: The Global Shop in Australia; K.Humphery Framing a Fair Trade Life: Tensions in the Fair Trade Marketplace; K.Brown The Mall and the Street: Practices of Public Consumption in Mumbai; J.S.Anjaria 'They Come, and They Are Happy': A Gender Topography of Consumer Space in Dubai; A.Baldauf Index