The end of the bazaar? Morphology of a post-Soviet marketplace

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 transn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHistory and anthropology Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 152 - 169
Main Authors Humphrey, Caroline, Skvirskaja, Vera
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 01.01.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Annihilation
container market
Gentrification
Morphology
Odessa (Odesa)
Online trade
Postcommunist societies
Trade
transnational traders
Ukraine
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0275-7206
1477-2612
DOI:10.1080/02757206.2021.1987233