Papers presented by Fabian Prieto Ñañez since 2019

2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"The Business of Repairing Smuggled Electronics Goods in 1980s Bogota"

Abstract:

This research delves into the emergence of repair services for appliances and electronics in Bogota during the 1980s, intricately linked to the burgeoning flow of commodities facilitated by smuggling networks. It argues that this clandestine flow of goods played a pivotal role in establishing new repair workshops and small businesses, ultimately contributing to the city's rapid modernization. By examining the symbiotic relationship between smuggling networks and the repair industry, the research unveils a compelling narrative of urban transformation. It contends that the influx of contraband electronics necessitated repair services, creating a robust ecosystem of skilled repairmen who filled a critical gap in the market. These informal repair businesses not only sustained the operation of electronic devices but also played an instrumental role in fostering the intense modernization of the city. Furthermore, the study highlights the informal nature of these devices and the often-overlooked cadre of technicians who ventured into the repair business. It underscores how these technicians established a distributed repair network, intricately connected to bazaar economies and characterized by face-to-face customer interactions. The research argues that the influx of contraband electronics needing repair created a dynamic and resilient ecosystem of skilled technicians who effectively addressed the city's growing demand for repair services. These informal repair enterprises not only ensured the continued functionality of electronic devices but also played a pivotal role in driving the city's rapid modernization.

2022 Mexico City

"The Pirates of the Caribbean: Mapping Responses to Institutional Voids by Satellite Entrepreneurs, 1974-1986"

Abstract:

Building on prior work (Prieto, 2019), we present an interdisciplinary conversation about how the initiation of U.S. satellite television led to an increase in entrepreneurial activity in the Caribbean area and the mechanisms through which these entrepreneurs were delegitimized over time. In 1974, the first commercial American broadcast satellite was launched into geosynchronous orbit above North America. Soon after the satellite was in orbit, amateur experiments with satellite television reception created an ecosystem within the United States. However, the spillover of the satellite signal outside the terrestrial boundaries of the United States created an institutional void into which entrepreneurs in the Caribbean basin entered, thereby creating an alternative (unexpected) ecosystem. This alternative ecosystem included homemade antennas, local distribution systems, and other networks of exchange. The increasing prevalence of these practices should have legitimized the satellite entrepreneurs. But instead, the prevalence and proliferation of these practices raised concerns, and eventually, these activities were made illegal. A decade later, in 1986, a new technological fix -- the scrambler -- was introduced that formalized the “pirate” status of the satellite entrepreneurs of the Caribbean. The institutional void had been filled. We will use multilingual topic modeling (a type of Natural Language Processing) to explore the mechanisms through which satellite entrepreneurs operating outside the U.S. were delegitimized. Our machine-learning data corpus will include documents from diverse data sources reflecting the perspectives, points of views and arguments from the multiple key stakeholders (including satellite entrepreneurs’ magazines, media content from U.S. and Latin American countries, and congressional hearings) to understand how each stakeholder’s perspectives evolved over time. This methodology, together with knowledge of the context, allows us to identify anomalies and generate a more granular and theoretically fruitful explanation of the mechanism through which satellite entrepreneurs were labeled as “pirates” and eventually delegitimized

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2021 Hopin Virtual Events Platform

"Disrupting National Infrastructures: Satellite Television, Informal Trade, and Suitcase Entrepreneurs in the Caribbean in the 1980s"

Abstract:

In the United States, amateur experiments with satellite television reception created a business that extended from rural areas in the United States to different countries worldwide. In their expansion to the Caribbean and Central and South America, early satellite dishes encountered an unrestricted environment for their adoption, despite legal ambiguities about their use. In this presentation, I explore the role of informal trade in the Caribbean in the emergence of satellite television providers as a business in the region. Grounded in early cable television (CATV) entrepreneurship, amateur magazines collected stories of satellite dishes experiments, showing a network that supported the circulation of electronic parts, antennas, and knowledge. In Belize, these systems became the first attempts to build a national television, while in other countries, they challenged the existing infrastructure. As entrepreneurs played a role in developing free trade policies in the Caribbean, I argue that "satellite-innovators" identified a business opportunity in challenging media distribution systems in the region, as they consider technologies as agents of cultural changes. As exchanges happened through informal trade, this case contributes to studying small businesses' emergence in the region.

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