Travelling with the Argonauts

<ul> <li> New theoretical and methodological approach that moves away from vertical perspectives in studying the social.</li> <li> Creating conceptual space for studying form-free social phenomena such as informal networks.</li> <li> Critique of conventional methods of studying informal social relations.</li> <li> Flattened structure of text: book written ‘across’ the social with no chronology without linking actions to structure(s). Synchrony and the ‘flatness' of the social landscape the historical context replaced by a thick description of studied cases.</li> <li> Extensive longitudinal participant-based fieldwork with numerous case studies.</li> <li> Site-less ethnography escaping the limitations of locality.</li> <li> Demonstration that migrant groups engage with each other (e.g. through economic dealings) making links beyond the national ethnic religious or class divisions.</li> <li> Definition and description of informal networks showing examples that that not all types of social organization are structured.</li></ul>