The end of the bazaar? Morphology of a post-Soviet marketplace
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The end of the bazaar? Morphology of a post-Soviet marketplace. / Skvirskaja, Vera; Humphrey, Caroline.
In: History and Anthropology, 2021.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The end of the bazaar? Morphology of a post-Soviet marketplace
AU - Skvirskaja, Vera
AU - Humphrey, Caroline
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The proliferation of online commerce has modified retail and wholesale trade. This paper discusses the consequences for the large outdoor marketplaces that emerged in post-Soviet space. These markets, locally designated as bazaars, have become an important feature of economic life, attracting transnational, foreign traders and offering a huge range of commodities. Rather than attempting to define the bazaar as an economic category fixed in time and space, the article draws on anthropological and historical approaches and shifts attention to the idea of bazarnost’ (‘bazaar-ness’, that is, the kind of behaviours and practices seen locally to have a ‘bazaar-like’ quality). Using the case-study of a large container market in Odessa, Ukraine, it is argued that gentrification, changing attitudes to various ‘outsiders’, and the widespread shift to the online commerce have not (yet) annihilated the bazaar as a physical marketplace; rather, while becoming more abrasive, bazarnost’ has adapted to, and found its own niche among, regional unfolding economic and political processes.
AB - The proliferation of online commerce has modified retail and wholesale trade. This paper discusses the consequences for the large outdoor marketplaces that emerged in post-Soviet space. These markets, locally designated as bazaars, have become an important feature of economic life, attracting transnational, foreign traders and offering a huge range of commodities. Rather than attempting to define the bazaar as an economic category fixed in time and space, the article draws on anthropological and historical approaches and shifts attention to the idea of bazarnost’ (‘bazaar-ness’, that is, the kind of behaviours and practices seen locally to have a ‘bazaar-like’ quality). Using the case-study of a large container market in Odessa, Ukraine, it is argued that gentrification, changing attitudes to various ‘outsiders’, and the widespread shift to the online commerce have not (yet) annihilated the bazaar as a physical marketplace; rather, while becoming more abrasive, bazarnost’ has adapted to, and found its own niche among, regional unfolding economic and political processes.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - marketplaces
KW - post-Soviet realm
KW - Odessa
KW - online trade
KW - Cross-cultural studies
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - anthropology
KW - ethnography
U2 - 10.1080/02757206.2021.1987233
DO - 10.1080/02757206.2021.1987233
M3 - Journal article
JO - History and Anthropology
JF - History and Anthropology
SN - 0275-7206
ER -
ID: 288208619