- Thousands of Africans head to China each year to buy cell phones, auto parts, and other products that they will import to their home countries through a clandestine global back channel.
- Hundreds of Paraguayan merchants smuggle computers, electronics, and clothing across the border to Brazil.[...]

In almost every country of the world, the most active builders are squatters, creating complex local economies with high rises, shopping strips, banks, and self-government. As they invent social structures, this work argues, squatters are at the forefront of the worldwide movement to develop visions[...]