Cosmopolitanism and Business among German-Turks in Berlin

Abstract

This paper investigates the cultural dimension of immigrant entrepreneurship in the case of Berlin's Turkish economy. This investigation is needed because cultural explanations of business have been criticised for their deterministic and reified conception of culture. As a result, models explaining immigrant economies are now mostly socioeconomic and ignore culture. After a description of recent changes in German-Turks entrepreneurial activities and an ethnographic description of two German-Turkish businesses in Berlin, the paper argues that the implications in terms of culture and identity of self-employment can be fruitfully analysed with the concepts of hybridity and cosmopolitanism. Finally, a broader perspective is proposed that establishes a link between foreigners, trade and culture in order to enlarge our understanding of cosmopolitanism.