Does the concept of nationality apply to the economic elite, or have they shed national identities to form a global capitalist class? In Rooted Globalism, Kevin Funk unpacks dozens of ethnographic interviews he conducted with Latin America's urban-based, Arab-descendant elite class, some of whom also occupy positions of political power in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. Based on extensive fieldwork, Funk illuminates how these elites navigate their Arab ancestry, Latin American host cultures, and roles as protagonists of globalization. With the term "rooted globalism," Funk captures the emergence of classed intersectional identities that are simultaneously local, national, transnational, and global. Focusing on an oft-ignored axis of South-South relations (between Latin America and the Arab world), Rooted Globalism provides detailed analysis of the identities, worldviews, and motivations of this group and ultimately reveals that rather than obliterating national identities, global capitalism relies on them.
"The intricacies of class formation in Latin America have been the object of a long tradition of critical scholarship, which tends to focus on the legacies of slavery, indigenous genocide, colonialism, and the weakness of national ruling classes. Kevin Funk brings a breath of fresh air to the field with this very original book about the "rooted globalism" of Arab-Latin American elites. Beyond pres
Felipe Antunes de Oliveira, Queen Mary University of London
"Kevin Funk's Rooted Globalism challenges the ubiquitous claim that leading capitalists have mentally divorced themselves from the nation-state as they congeal into a placeless hegemonic class with a global consciousness. Funk interviewed dozens of leading capitalists in South America and finds that the identities of these global actors intersect with ethnicity, race, family and ancestral ties, mi
Clyde W. Barrow, author of The Dangerous Class, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
