“Being Latinos is not Only an Empty Label”: Latinx identity and the Enactment of Diverse Economic Realities in Charlotte and Boston

Keywords: Latinx, diverse economies, racial identities
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Around the world, scholars have documented the emergence and impact of economic practices that do not necessarily align with the principles and functioning mechanisms of the capitalist system. However, to this date, little is known about the contribution of migrant communities to diverse collaborative economic practices as they increasingly play a significant socio-economic role in the United States. Standard, western, dominant conceptualizations of ethnoracial categories prevent from fully unpacking the diversity of migrants’ experiences in the US, the multiplicity of non-capitalist economic practices migrant communities activate, and the complex ways they challenge stereotypical definitions of ethnoracial categories and economic concepts. This exploratory research relies on poststructuralist and postcolonial approaches that theorize the economy as a diverse, contested, and situated realm to produce nuanced understandings of diverse economic practices developed by Latinx communities in the US and to fill in the gaps in current understandings of diverse economies, ethnic economies, and ethnic foodscapes. By relying on a relational comparative case study and a mixed-method approach in Boston (MA) and Charlotte (NC), this research (1) challenges stereotypical and monolithic representations of racial and economic identities; (2) demonstrates the connections between the development of food-based collaborative networks informed by values of solidarity, interdependence, and cooperativism rooted in Latinx individuals’ non-static identity, cultural background, and past experiences; and (3) shows the mutually constitutive relationship between Latinx food-based diverse economic practices and the urban contexts in which they emerge, alongside the important transformative power these practices have for individuals, groups, and the context.