The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban Marketplaces
The article briefly presents the empirical results of a large research project focused on Polish urban marketplaces, commonly known as bazaars, and their interactional order. Due to the spatial separation and legal regulations concerning bazaar trade, a relatively constant community of market vendor...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Lodz University Press
2020-10-01
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Series: | Qualitative Sociology Review |
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Online Access: | https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/qualit/article/view/8564 |
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author | Lukasz Marciniak |
author_facet | Lukasz Marciniak |
author_sort | Lukasz Marciniak |
collection | DOAJ |
description | The article briefly presents the empirical results of a large research project focused on Polish urban marketplaces, commonly known as bazaars, and their interactional order. Due to the spatial separation and legal regulations concerning bazaar trade, a relatively constant community of market vendors is created in the area of the particular marketplace. The primary activity of each merchant is to offer and sell goods; however, the specificity of marketplace trade results in the necessity to maintain relationships with other vendors to keep this primary activity going. Thus, the activities of merchants are carried out in the same direction for both economic results and performance (sales and profit) and social action, that is, building and managing relations with vendors operating in the same marketplace. A wide range of activities and interaction strategies is developed that create an order of interactions between vendors, both in terms of perceiving and assigning meanings, interpreting, and taking actions. The consequences of such an interactional foundation affect the economic layer of the market, embedding, on the one hand, economic phenomena in social phenomena, and, on the other hand, generating paradoxes of prices and competition—the two economic concepts that cannot be analyzed without their social contexts. |
first_indexed | 2024-12-21T10:39:19Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-4167f8ed2123428c8b36bd915c2a6472 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1733-8077 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-21T10:39:19Z |
publishDate | 2020-10-01 |
publisher | Lodz University Press |
record_format | Article |
series | Qualitative Sociology Review |
spelling | doaj.art-4167f8ed2123428c8b36bd915c2a64722022-12-21T19:06:57ZengLodz University PressQualitative Sociology Review1733-80772020-10-0116410612110.18778/1733-8077.16.4.078449The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban MarketplacesLukasz Marciniak0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4897-6868University of Lodz, PolandThe article briefly presents the empirical results of a large research project focused on Polish urban marketplaces, commonly known as bazaars, and their interactional order. Due to the spatial separation and legal regulations concerning bazaar trade, a relatively constant community of market vendors is created in the area of the particular marketplace. The primary activity of each merchant is to offer and sell goods; however, the specificity of marketplace trade results in the necessity to maintain relationships with other vendors to keep this primary activity going. Thus, the activities of merchants are carried out in the same direction for both economic results and performance (sales and profit) and social action, that is, building and managing relations with vendors operating in the same marketplace. A wide range of activities and interaction strategies is developed that create an order of interactions between vendors, both in terms of perceiving and assigning meanings, interpreting, and taking actions. The consequences of such an interactional foundation affect the economic layer of the market, embedding, on the one hand, economic phenomena in social phenomena, and, on the other hand, generating paradoxes of prices and competition—the two economic concepts that cannot be analyzed without their social contexts.https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/qualit/article/view/8564symbolic interactionismbazaarstreet vendorsgrounded theoryqualitative economic sociology |
spellingShingle | Lukasz Marciniak The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban Marketplaces Qualitative Sociology Review symbolic interactionism bazaar street vendors grounded theory qualitative economic sociology |
title | The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban Marketplaces |
title_full | The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban Marketplaces |
title_fullStr | The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban Marketplaces |
title_full_unstemmed | The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban Marketplaces |
title_short | The Social Organization of Merchants’ Activities. An Interactionist Study of Urban Marketplaces |
title_sort | social organization of merchants activities an interactionist study of urban marketplaces |
topic | symbolic interactionism bazaar street vendors grounded theory qualitative economic sociology |
url | https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/qualit/article/view/8564 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT lukaszmarciniak thesocialorganizationofmerchantsactivitiesaninteractioniststudyofurbanmarketplaces AT lukaszmarciniak socialorganizationofmerchantsactivitiesaninteractioniststudyofurbanmarketplaces |