The overlap spaces of alternative economy and subaltern businesses : a study of emigrant peddlers

Subalterns constitute the large majority of the members of any social system and are closely associated with the geopolitics of any geographical area. Subalterns have often created alternative economies through their networks of solidarity to rally themselves against the hegemonic scourge of mainstream economies. A subaltern business group is identified in the present study, and the applicability of the characteristics of alternative economies is researched. The objective of the present study is to explore the overlapping space of subaltern business groups and alternative economy. The subaltern has often spoken through qualitative studies in the past. The present study embraces the following steps: (a) tracing the evolution of alternative economy with a view to understanding the characteristics of alternative economy; (b) identifying some distinctive characteristics of alternative economic networks; and (c) utilizing the distinctive characteristics of alternative economic networks, to conduct a qualitative study of an organization of subaltern street peddlers. The narratives collected from the subaltern peddlers are used to present certain inferences about the nature of the overlapping space of alternative economy and subaltern businesses. A conceptual framework is constructed for this overlapping space based upon the present study. Such a conceptual framework of the overlapping space of alternative economy and subalterns may add certain important aspects to the simultaneously burgeoning body of academic works on alternative economy as well as subaltern studies. Scholars and policymakers may be able to understand the alternative economic networks of subalterns better and may establish policies for the sustenance of such networks.