"Post-socialist bazaars: Markets and diversities in ex-COMECON countries"

Workshops, conferences 2012

  • Start: Feb 23, 2012 09:00 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • End: Feb 24, 2012 12:30 PM
  • Location: MPI-MMG, Goettingen
  • Room: Library Hall
"Post-socialist bazaars: Markets and diversities in ex-COMECON countries"
Prior to the collapse of Communism, hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in various localities throughout COMECON countries by way of programmes of mutual cooperation and ‘socialist solidarity’. Since then, many have not returned to their countries of origin, but have become entrepreneurs mostly engaged in wholesaling and retailing. Women and men from various, previously Communist countries now commonly work as street vendors and sellers in open air markets and bazaars across other former Communist territories. Further, after the fall of the Berlin Wall a new wave of people with various ethnic, linguistic, religious and class backgrounds have engaged in petty trading, suitcase and market trading within ex-COMECON countries. Local markets, increasingly comprised of diverse peoples, play key roles in post-socialist economic development while they transnationally link a variety of geographical and socio-cultural spaces around the world.

-by invitation only -


For more details please contact esser(at)mmg.mpg.de.


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Key themes in the conference include:

  1. processes of diversification and social transformation
  2. mobility and transnational social and economic practices
  3. bazaars as public places and sites of cultural exchange



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