Transnational Trade and New Types of Entrepreneurs in Algeria[Commerce transnational et nouvelles figures entrepreneuriales en Algérie]

The boom in imported consumer products labelled "Made in China" has led to a reorganisation of Algerian supply networks and the places in which those goods are sold. This emergence of international routes, and the rapidity and very large scale in which they arose, raise questions about these new entrepreneurs. Breaking with traditional supply circuits, their initiative is remarkable, even more so since these economic actors are often young. While some of them do come from trading families, nothing destined them to become the pioneers of these new routes. What is equally remarkable is how such a change could have occurred in a country where the private sector has long been marginalised and in which private business still has an ambiguous and controversial identity in an economy caught between the rigours of strict bureaucracy and unrestrained distribution markets. This article focuses on the specific actors in this transnational economy and on ‘globalization from below'. It draws on field research in several sites (Algeria, Dubai, China) and attempts to show how these new kinds of entrepreneurs have come into being in a country that is still in the making.