Includes bibliographical references.

Regulating the Ogallala: paradox and ambiguity in western Kansas / Jane Gibson, Benjamin Gray -- Contested understandings of sustainability and climate issues in southern Costa Rica / Julia Smith -- Climate variability in West Africa: a case study in vulnerability and adaptation on the Northern Central Plateau, Burkina Faso / Colin West, Carla Rancoli, Pascal Yaka -- Contested affluence: cultural politics of pashmina wealth and wildlife conservation in Ladakh / Alka Sabharwal -- Maximizing social proximity in market relations: the networks of Nigerian immigrant business owners in New York City / Leila Rodriguez -- The Hau of the theft: reciprocity, reputation and the Koh-I-Noor diamond / Daniel Bradburd -- The space between community and self-interest: conflict and the experience of exchange in heroin markets / Lee Hoffer -- Suburban drug dealing: a case study in ambivalent economics / David Crawford -- Performing anonymity: investors, brokers, and the malleability of material identity information in financial markets / Aaron Pitluck -- The creation of a local innovation ecosystem in Japan for nurturing global entrepreneurs / Liv Nyland Krause -- Exploring the interactions: plot-level analysis of Maragoli women farmers' crop control and yields in western Kenya / Edwins Laban Moogi Gwako -- The alternative economics of alternative healing: faith-based therapies in Brazil's religious marketplace / Sidney Greenfield.

This volume consists of three sections connected by the elucidation of differences in perspective between people and polities. The first, concentrating on ecology, serves in part to further explore the theme of climate change. It looks into aquifer usage and ecology in the Midwestern United States, farming and climate shifts in Costa Rica and in Burkina Faso, and goat herding and conservation issues in the Himalayas. The second section focuses on exchange transactions and relations in a variety of situations and settings: among Nigerian immigrant business owners in New York City, along the path of the famous Koh-i-noor Diamond from India to the Tower of London, and between dealers and buyers in illegal narcotics markets in the Eastern, Midwestern, and Pacific Northwestern USA. Finally, papers in the third section share a concern with individual and group adaptations to certain conditions of life. Offered are investigations into relations between stock brokers and professional investors in Malaysia, attempts to foster innovation in Western Japan, women's farming strategies and autonomy in Western Kenya, and alternative healing decisions and practices in Brazil.

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