Many forces threaten the viability of town centers. One of them is trade concentration in which family businesses are replaced by large, vertically integrated retail enterprises. Town centers, once locations of a rich variety of street stores in the hands of a local and independent merchant community, are being supplanted by monolithic and decentralized commercial zones. This process is documented in contemporary Germany for two towns, one grounded in a market economy and the other, until recently, socialistically based. In both cases, trade concentration is a prevailing force-- a pattern that is not only found in post-industrialized nations, but also in developing countries in Latin America and Asia and is indicative of an emerging global culture.

The general theme of "Social Dimensions in the Economic Process" is an old one in economic anthropology. On the abstract end it involves, first, the degree of social content of individual transactions and, second, how economic processes relate to social structure. More specifically, the theme relates to matters such as the need for trust resulting in personalized systems of economic transactions, and how institutions shape economic arrangements. In five parts, the first two parts deal with the social content and consequences of economic relations. Parts III and IV address particular institutions, the household and agrarian relations. The volume ends in Part V with chapters linked to globalization.

The collection of original contributions in this volume of "Research in Economic Anthropology" addresses two recurrent themes in economic anthropology. These are the process of economic development and the basis on which economic integration takes place. The development theme is divided between papers that are concerned with the social and demographic impact of development, and those that examine the recent post-socialist transition. The integration theme is represented by articles that examine the symbolic foundations of economic integration, and by contributions that focus on the moral basis of integration and continuity. With respect to both themes theoretical issues are discussed, and detailed ethnographic cases are drawn from Asia, Europe, Russia, Latin America, and the U.S.

The general theme of Volume 24 is the impact of, and reaction to, the spread of market systems and market liberalization by local communities. Part I examines cases in which migration has opened new market and entrepreneurial opportunities to local populations. Part II contains cases that describe ethnographically the impacts the oil industry market has had on towns of Louisiana's Gulf coast. The essays of Part III concern themselves with community repercussions that recent neoliberal market policies have had, while Part IV contains papers that analyse the process in which values of products and services are defined economically, culturally and politically in the context of developing markets and commoditization. This book focuses on market systems and market liberalization in local communities. Specific topics addressed include the oil industry and the gulf coast, negotiating values in the market, and many more. The international case examples provide a global perspective.

MICHAEL. WATERS is the principal author of this work and served as the head of the research team. He is a professor of anthropology and geography at Texas A&M University and is Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans What Readers Are Saying: "It is well written, engaging, and original . . . will fill an important gap in our knowledge of World War Two on the homefront . . . Waters' book is the only book to examine the history of a single camp, and that in Texas, complete with interviews with former prisoners, guards, and local townspeople. Even more important, Waters' book is also an archaeological examination of the campsite, based on the detailed labor of dozens of young archaeological students over a period of some four years. Waters details their findings, to reveal the daily experiences of the more than 4,000 German soldiers who spent the war year in Texas. Prof. Waters and his team have unearthed a treasure trove of information which will be of interest to historians, archaeologists, history buffs, and specialists of Texas history, alike."--Arnold Krammer, author, Nazi Prisoners of War in America and Hitler's Last Soldier in America. "It is well written, engaging, and original . . . will fill an important gap in our knowledge of World War Two on the homefront . . . Waters' book is the only book to examine the history of a single camp, and that in Texas, complete with interviews with former prisoners, guards, and local townspeople. Even more important, Waters' book is also an archaeological examination of the campsite, based on the detailed labor of dozens of young archaeological students over a period of some four years. Waters details their findings, to reveal the daily experiences of the more than 4,000 German soldiers who spent the war year in Texas. Prof. Waters and his team have unearthed a treasure trove of information which will be of interest to historians, archaeologists, history buffs, and specialists of Texas history, alike." --Arnold Krammer, author, Nazi Prisoners of War in America and Hitler